KAKINADA: The agitation for inclusion of Kapus in the backward class list in Andhra Pradesh is likely to gain momentum with the community’s leader Mudragada Padmanabham announcing today a five-day padayatra beginning November 16 to turn up the heat on the Chandrababu Naidu government.
Mudragada, who had been lying low for about a month, went into a huddle with members of the Kapu Reservation Movement Joint Action Committee at his residence in Kirlampudi in East Godavari district today. Speaking to reporters later, he said the protest, christened Kapu Satyagraha Padayatra, will begin at Ravulapalem and end at Antarvedi in East Godavari district. "The Satyagraha Padayatra should remind everyone of Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha movement," he said.
Kapu community members have been invited to participate in the rally, wearing black bands to register their protest against the delay in according BC status to the community.
Wary of a repeat of the violent protests witnessed in January this year, Mudragada urged the Kapus to take an oath not to consume alcohol during the satyagraha.
The Kapu quota agitation first hit the headlines after a public meeting organised by Mudragada turned violent at Tuni on January 31. Protestors set fire to the Ratnachal Express and created mayhem, forcing the Chandrababu Naidu government to sit up and take notice. Subsequently, the Kapu leader sat on a fast, once in Feb and later in June, to up the pressure on the government to expedite the process of Kapus' inclusion among the BCs.
The government has constituted the Manjunath Commission to look into the issue but the latter had asked the former to conduct a survey of the socio-economic status of the Kapus to consider if they could be given the BC tag. It's reported that the ongoing Smart Pulse Survey could be used for this purpose.
The ruling TDP has accused YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy of trying to use Mudragada to wean away the numerically stronger Kapus in the coastal districts from its fold.