It’s well-known that YCP leader Jagan and Jana Sena leader Pawan have serious, irreparable political differences particularly on the issues of corruption and illegal wealth.
This was why Pawan’s fans and his Kapu caste men use every opportunity to attack Jagan’s party.
Now, Jagan is facing potential rivalry from another important Kapu leader ie Vangaveeti Radhakrishna known as Radha.
As the 2019 elections are drawing closer, the distance between Jagan and Radha group is widening with lesser chances of repair.
Radha is insisting on the YCP leadership to announce his candidature from Vijayawada Central assembly constituency. There has been no commitment to this effect so far.
Rubbing salt to injury, rumours spread like wildfire that YCP senior leaders on Sunday had asked Radha to stop getting involved in Vijayawada Central and instead focus on Machilipatnam parliamentary constituency.
Radha’s followers were also asked not to interfere with the activities of Vellampalli Srinivas in Vijayawada West segment.
Coming from the long-known Vangaveeti family, Radha has got high stakes in Vijayawada city politics and his dreams of getting elected from here remain unfulfilled.
Seeing its potential impact on elections, the YCP leaders are now trying to convince and persuade Radha to cooperate with the party leadership.
On the other hand, Radha is on a collision course as his followers are bringing pressure on him to stick to his demand for Vijayawada Central ticket.
The latest controversy raised heat within the YCP, which cannot afford to lose total support from the Kapus.
Following this incident, Radha’s follower and Vuyyur councillor Vangaveeti Srinivas Prasad had resigned from the YCP membership on Monday.
Political circles see this as a small but significant blow to any future efforts by YCP to woo Kapu votes.
Taking note of the importance of the Kapu votebank, the BJP had already won over former minister Kanna Lakshminarayana and even made him the party’s AP president.
As Pawan, TDP and BJP seek to split the Kapu votes, the YCP seemed to have lost most of its ground in this respect.
YCP leaders are now making strategies to turn this disadvantage into an advantage by attracting a greater share of backward and dalit communities votebanks.
G. RaviKiran
