Andhra: YSRCP demands apology from Pawan Kalyan over Kapu remarks

Amaravati, June 22 (IANS) YSR Congress Party has demanded that Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan immediately apologise to the Kapu community for using derogatory remarks.

YSRCP leaders belonging to the Kapu community slammed the Jana Sena leader for allegedly making offensive comments against the community and its leaders.

Addressing the media at the party office in Kakinada, former ministers Kurasala Kannababu and Dadisetti Raja, former MP Vanga Geetha, along with YSRCP Assembly coordinators from the Kakinada Parliamentary constituency, said Pawan Kalyan had become a tool in Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s diversion politics and was being used to distract public attention from critical issues confronting the state.

The leaders said the coalition government had no answers for a series of custodial deaths, missing bodies, growing law and order failures, and allegations surrounding DSC irregularities.

Unable to respond to these issues, Chandrababu Naidu had deployed Pawan Kalyan to divert the debate through abusive language and personal attacks on Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and YSRCP leaders.

They said insulting leaders such as Botsa Satyanarayana, Mudragada Padmanabham, Thota Trimurtulu, and Vanga Geetha amounted to insulting the entire Kapu community.

YSRCP leaders questioned why Kapus in YSRCP were branded as rowdies while those in TDP and Jana Sena were portrayed as respectable figures. They alleged that Chandrababu Naidu had historically attempted to portray Kapu leaders, from Vangaveeti Ranga onwards, as anti-social elements and was now using Pawan Kalyan to weaken the community from within.

They also questioned Pawan Kalyan’s silence on unfulfilled promises made to Kapus, including Kapu reservations, Kapu Nestham, and annual allocations to the Kapu Corporation.

The leaders warned that YSRCP would not remain silent if personal attacks against Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy continued and asserted that the party would continue fighting until justice was delivered to Kapus and all marginalised communities in Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, Jana Sena Party hit back at YSRCP leaders for targeting Pawan Kalyan.

Party MLA P. Ramesh Babu told YSRCP leaders that they may get attention by attacking Pawan Kalyan, but if they invoked the Kapu community while doing so, the people would politically bury them.

He warned that voters had already taught YSRCP a lesson two years ago, and if they continued on the same path, they would cease to exist politically.

–IANS

ms/dan