Kapu leader Mudragada Padmanabham on Saturday reiterated his stand that he would up the ante against the Andhra Pradesh government, if it fails to deliver on its promise of providing reservation in education and jobs for the Kapu community soon.
Addressing a gathering of the Balija sect in Tirupati, Mudragada said that he had set a deadline of March 31 to TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu.
Asking them to take to the streets if the state failed them, Mudragada also extended his support to Andhra Pradesh’s demand for special category status.
“People in our neighbouring states, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, fought unitedly for their rights and they achieved their demands from the Central government. Our political leaders also should come under one platform to fight for special status. In fact, the fight against the Centre is possible with CM Chandrababu Naidu only. My humble request to him is that he should come forward to fight for special status,” Mudragada was quoted as saying.
In December last year, the Andhra Pradesh government unanimously passed a legislation to provide five percent reservation to the Kapus, and CM Chandrababu Naidu assured the BC community that the reservation would not be unjust to them in any manner.
The agitation by Kapus, seeking inclusion in the Backward Classes category, had turned violent at Tuni on January 31, 2016, when protesters went on the rampage and set fire to a passenger train, a police station, besides police and private vehicles.
Following this, the state government had constituted a BC commission to look into the demands of reservation by the Kapu community.
Reservations for the Kapu community are not yet a reality, since the new 5% quote pushes the total quantum of reservations in the state to over the 50% ceiling mandated by the Supreme Court in 1992 in the Indira Sawhney case.
For the bill to have legal validity, it must now be included in Schedule 9 of the Constitution, as has been done in the case of Tamil Nadu, which has 69% reservations.