The JC brothers have earmarked Tadipatri as their personal fiefdom and have been ruling Tadipatri with an iron hand for decades now. They are now looking to expand beyond Tadipatri and looking for a bigger slice of the action in Ananthapur and elsewhere.
While their efforts have met with mixed results to date, they are now facing a major challenge in their own constituency of Tadipatri in the form of Kethireddy Pedda Reddy.
Pedda Reddy is the YSRCP in-charge for Tadipatri and is the younger brother of the late Kethireddy Suryapratap Reddy. There has been a faction war between the families of Kethireddy and the JC brothers in Tadipatri which claimed many lives.
The war ended with the death of Surya Pratap Reddy who was hacked to death by his rivals at Tadipatri railway station as he was returning from Hyderabad.
Incidentally, Surya Pratap Reddy had a kidney transplant only a year ago, donated by his sister. Pedda Reddy was in jail at the time of Surya Pratap’s murder.
Later, a compromise was chalked out according to which, the murder case of Surya Pratap Reddy was diluted in exchange for cases against his followers being lifted.
Surya Pratap Reddy’s son Venkata Rami Reddy won as MLA from Dharmavaram and lost in the subsequent election. His uncle Pedda Reddy, a strong personality in his own right, is now the weapon that Jagan Mohan Reddy has decided to use against the JC brothers.
In the last election, the Reddys of Tadipatri voted for YSRCP thereby angering the JC brothers. They are expected to sail with Pedda Reddy in 2019 which means that JC brothers have to consolidate their other voting segments.
Speaking realistically, the JC brothers would probably win in 2019 as well, but what Pedda Reddy can do is expose a few chinks in the armour of the JC brothers. And that can be the first step towards bringing an end to their dominion.
No wonder that the JC brothers have upped their ante against Jagan after Pedda Reddy was nominated as Tadipatri YSRCP In-charge.
