The 12-point memorandum submitted by Bharatiya Janata Party Andhra Pradesh unit president Kanna Lakshminarayana to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday has covered almost all the pending issues pertaining to the state, except two.
They are: Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh and Kapu reservation bill pending with the Centre.
Of course, Kanna cannot raise the issue of special category status, as it is a policy decision of the Modi government not to grant such a status to any other state, except 11 states which have already been enjoying the same.
Since Modi himself made it clear several times that it is not possible to grant the status, Kanna also did not include it in his memorandum.
However, what baffled the political leaders in the state is why Kanna did not raise the issue of Kapu reservations in his meeting with Modi.
The BJP is trying to wean the Kapu voters away from the TDP in 2019 elections and that is precisely why the party leadership picked up Kanna, who is also a Kapu, as the state BJP chief.
Secondly, it is also allegedly encouraging Kapu leaders like Mudragada Padmanabham and Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan with an eye on garnering their votes.
Both Pawan and Mudragada have been attacking TDP president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and have not been making any criticism against Modi.
In fact, Mudragada never wrote any letter to Modi asking for giving a nod to the Kapu reservation bill passed unanimously by the AP assembly.
At this stage, had Kanna included the Kapu quota issue in his memorandum, it would have fetched a lot of mileage to the BJP and also its prospective allies with the help of whom, it is planning to defeat the TDP.
It is a different matter whether the Centre would agree for Kapu quota or not, but at least a mention in the memorandum would have brought some credibility to Kanna, since he is also a Kapu.
“By deciding not to ask for Kapu reservations, Kanna proved that he is no messaiah for Kapus. In fact, it is the TDP which has proved its sincerity towards Kapus by appointing a commission, getting a report on the quota and passed a bill in the assembly,” TDP MP Galla Jayadev said.
Any answer from Kanna?
