The announcement made by Kapu leader and former minister Mudragada Padmanabham that he would change his name as “Padmanabha Reddy” evoked strong protest from the Reddy community.
A former gram panchayat sarpanch belonging to the Reddy community on Monday objected to Mudragada’s announcement to change his name as Padmanabha Reddy, asking whether the latter had sought the consent of the Reddy community before doing so.
Mudragada, who had joined the YSRCP before the elections and had campaigned vigorously on behalf of the party against Jana Sena Party (JSP) chief K Pawan Kalyan (who is also from the Kapu community), had declared that he would change his name to Padmanabha Reddy if he failed to ensure the defeat of the power star in Pithapuram assembly constituency.
But Pawan Kalyan won the Pithapuram assembly seat over YSRCP’s Vanga Geetha with a massive margin of nearly 70,000 votes.
A couple of days later, Murdragada accepted that he had failed to fulfil his vow and hence, he would change his name as Padmanabha Reddy.
He even commenced the exercise of officially adding ‘Reddy’ to his name through a gazette notification. He showed all the relevant papers to the media.
This was resisted by some Reddys. On Monday, Karri Venkatarama Reddy, former sarpanch of Koppavaram gram panchayat from Anaparthi constituency, objected to Mudragada’s decision.
“Has anyone from the Reddy community given you consent to add ‘Reddy’ to your name? Why did you choose our community’s name? Have you decided to weaken our community?” he asked.
Venkatarama Reddy further said; “It is high time that all the elders of the Reddy community raise their voice against the attempt of Padmanabham to change his name after our community. There is no need for the Reddy community to welcome such an individual into our community.”
