Kapu strongman and former minister Mudragada Padmanabham has turned out to be a tough nut to crack for Telugu Desam Party chief and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
Though Naidu thought he had turned tables on Mudragada by agreeing for a CBI inquiry into Tuni violence, the Kapu leader remained adamant and refused to withdraw his fast till all the arrested Kapu youth are released from jail and cases against them are lifted.
Having exhausted all his weapons, Naidu is learnt to have sent an SOS message to the BJP leaders seeking their help to tackle Mudragada.
Even as some leaders like Somu Veerraju rejected Naidu’s request, the latter managed to prevail upon the top leadership to depute a Kapu leader from the BJP to bargain with Mudragada.
Accordingly, BJP MLA Akula Satyanarayana met Mudragada on Monday morning and held discussions with him for a long time.
Finally, Mudragada reportedly came down a bit and asked the BJP leader to convey the message to Naidu that he was ready to negotiate with the Kapu Joint Action Committee which comprised his supporters.
The BJP MLA, in turn, conveyed Naidu’s message that it was not possible to lift the cases against the accused in Tuni violence, since the issue had already gone to the court. He convinced Mudragada saying he would ensure that the arrested came out on bail; and the cases would be taken care of by the court.
