Hyderabad, May 15: Followers of the union minister Chiranjeevi who are very anxious to make him the Chief Minister, are now trying to play the Kapu card, to outsmart the Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy.
Endowments minister C Rama Chandraiah suddenly held a meeting of MLAs and MLCs of the Kapu community on Tuesday.
As there was no specific reason why legislators of a particular community should meet, several doubts are being expressed.
It may be recalled that reports said that the Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy had assigned the CID to dig into the land scam of the Jubilee Hills Housing Society with particular focus on the irregularities of Chiranjeevi. There were charges that Chiranjeevi annexed some valuable land illegally.
The meeting organized by Ramachanraiah is seen as a warning to Chiranjeevi to behave himself or face the wrath of the Kapu community.
It is learnt that Ramachadraiah was trying to focus on the demand that Kapus should be included in the BCs, to make Chiranjeevi a formidable leader of the community and pose a threat to Kiran.
The meeting was attended by 8 MLAs including ministers Ganta Srinivasa Rao, also former colleague of Chiranjeevi from his PRP days and Vatti Vasanta Kumar. Vatti who has been expressing displeasure at the Chief Minister, attending the meeting gained importance. However, Kapu ministers Kanna Lakshmi Narayana and Thota Narasimham had abstained from the meeting.
It is learnt that the meeting mainly discussed about the main demand of including Kapus in the BC list. The Participants reportedly expressed discontent that the community was not getting proper respect in the party and IAS and IPS officers were not getting important postings, while other communities which form just 5 or 6 per cent of the population continue to dominate.
Rama Chandraiah reportedly expressed anguish that the Kapus were not getting a fair deal despite the party being in power. He suggested that the Kapu leaders should mount pressure on Kiran to include Kapus in the BC lost and also demand that funds proportionate to the population as per the survey should be released. Stating that Kapus were angry with the Congress for ignoring its election promise of including the community in the BCs, he warned that if the situation continued, Kapus might vote against the Congress.
Doubts are being expressed that Chiranjeevi was behind the meeting Ramachandraiah had organized. A strong rumour started making the rounds after the meeting, that replacement of the Chief Minister was on the cards.
