The recent Jat stir, which brought the Haryana government to its knees, seems to have given a shot in the arm to the Kapus in Andhra Pradesh as community leader Mudragada Padmanabham has set March 10 as deadline for the state government to accede to his demands.





Padmanabham said he will sit on fast unto death at his residence in Kirlampudi of East Godavari district on March 11 if the state government fails to give a written assurance on fulfilling his demands.



Addressing media at his residence on Friday, Mudragada said he was disillusioned by the non-implementation of all the assurances made by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on February 8 at the time of withdrawal of his four-day long hunger strike. “Instead of implementing the promises, the chief minister is indulging in witch hunt, my phones and phones of prominent Kapu leaders are being tapped, only TDP leaders belonging to Kapu community were being given assistance through Kapu Welfare Board,” he said.



Padmanabham, who is otherwise soft-spoken even to his detractors, lashed out at the ruling TDP which has described him as a puppet in the hands of YSRC chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy. “Has Naidu (the chief minister) gone mad or what? Does he think that I need Jagan to help me draft a letter to him. I am contemporary to Naidu in politics and I don’t need anybody’s tutoring in securing the interests of my community,” he said, adding that Naidu was free to prove his accusations.



Responding to the relaunch threat, state HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao said Padmanabham’s steps seem to be harming the interests of the community rather than benefiting it. “So far, more than 32,000 Kapus have availed loans to the tune of Rs 192 crore. We are planning to allocate more than Rs 500 crore to Kapu Corporation to sanction loans,” he said.



“We think that Padmanabham is dreaming of repeating a Haryana in AP. This time, the government will deal with anti-social elements in a strict manner,” said Vijayawada MLA Bonda Uma. The agitation by the community at Tuni in East Godavari district had turned violent on January 31 in which an entire train, two police stations and several vehicles were burnt down by thousands of Kapu activists leaving a trail of destruction.



Kapu leader Padmanabham said he will sit on fast unto death at his residence on March 11 if the AP government fails to give a written assurance.

