As the elections to Andhra Pradesh state assembly are fast approaching, caste equations have once again come to the fore in the state.
The latest news is that prominent Kapu leader of Vijayawada Vangaveeti Radhakrishna, son of popular leader late Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga, along with his family members and followers, is most likely to take a plunge into the Jana Sena Party floated by power star Pawan Kalyan, who also belongs to Kapu community.
Radhakrishna is presently with the YSR Congress party but in the last couple of days, he has been staying away from the party activities after YSRC president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy announced former MLA Malladi Vishnu as the party in-charge of Vijayawada (central) assembly constituency.
Radhakrishna, who has been nurturing Vijayawada central constituency for quite some after he was promised of the ticket from there.
Now with Vishnu entering the fray, Jagan is learnt to have asked Radhakrishna to contest from Machilipatnam Lok Sabha constituency in 2019, but the latter did not appreciate it.
While his cousin Vangaveetin Srinivas Prasad resigned from the YSRC and other posts in protest, Radhakrishna is learnt to have gone into hiding and might take a decision in a day or two on coming out of the YSRC.
“He is in touch with Pawan Kalyan and if everything works out, he and his followers might join the Jana Sena,” sources said.
In fact, there was a talk a few months ago that Radhakrishna might join the Telugu Desam Party next week.
The TDP leaders also openly claimed it. But later, he dropped the idea after Jagan spoke to him in Hyderabad. Radha told media later that he would continue in the YSRC till the end and there was no plan to join the TDP.
He, however, did not hide his displeasure either. Nobody has consulted me from the TDP.
“There is a time for everything. I cannot say anything right now. I am doing my own work,” he said then.
