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Vangaveeti Asha Kiran, daughter of late Congress leader Vangaveeti Ranga, announced her entry into politics on Sunday, November 16, at Raghavaiah Park in Vijayawada. Asha stated that her current focus was on strengthening the Radha-Ranga Mitra Mandali, a group dedicated to carrying forward the legacy of Ranga and his elder brother Radha.
“I will decide on electoral politics once I consult with elders in the Radha-Ranga Mitra Mandali. For now, my focus is on strengthening and uniting the various warring Mitra Mandalis in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,” she said.
“My father was someone who worked across caste and religious lines and I hope to continue that legacy forward,” Asha Kiran told the media after garlanding her father’s statue near Raghavaiah Park. Asha’s brother Vangaveeti Radha Krishna is also a political leader who first joined the Congress before moving to the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and quitting it to join the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 2019.
Asha’s father Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga is seen by the Kapu community as one of its most iconic political leaders. In 1988, Mohana Ranga was murdered allegedly by supporters of TDP leader Devineni Nehru as a result of a Kamma-Kapu feud. The coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh saw rampant violence while Vijayawada and Krishna districts witnessed a nearly month-long curfew. It was reported that the violence claimed more than 42 lives and shook the then NT Rama Rao (NTR)-led government. Ranga’s murder is still remembered as a great loss for the Kapu community.
After Ranga’s murder, many Kapus, including then ministers in the TDP government Mudragada Padmanabham and Chegondi Harirama Jogaiah, resigned from their posts and eventually from the TDP.