Hari Ramajogaiah wants Pawan Kalyan to demand 50 seats, fears failure of TDP-JSP alliance

PALAKOL: Kapu patriarch, former Minister, and president Kapu Sankshema Sena Chegondi Hari Ramajogaiah sought clarity from Janasena Party (JSP) chief Pawan Kalyan on the share of seats that his alliance partner willing to give in the ensuing Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.

In an open letter addressed to Pawan Kalyan on Monday, Hari Ramajogaiah said that he was surprised to note that the JSP had settled for 27-30 seats as projected in the ‘yellow’ media. “Will there be a sharing of seats based on the ratio of the Kapus, BCs, SCs, STs, and minorities in the population, or the same old forward castes of Reddies and Kammas will take away the major chunk of seats,” he questioned.

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He said that he was keenly observing the series of meetings between TDP chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan about the joint manifesto and seat sharing. “But the pre-emptive leak of the number of seats for JSP by the yellow media shows that the Kapus will be cheated for one more time. Chandrababu Naidu who failed miserably in the 2019 election by going alone needs JSP more, than vice versa,” he argued.

Except for Damodaram Sanjeevaiah, reddies who constituted 6 percent in forward castes, and the kammas who counted for 4 percent in forward castes enjoyed the fruits of independence, the former MP said. “They played a crucial role in restricting the 25 percent kapu, balija, telaga, and ontari castes from growing economically and politically. They were used as pawns in their political games by depriving us of reservations,” he said

Pointing out that these oppressed castes realised that grabbing power was the only way out of this vicious cycle. “From begging for seats we must transform into a power to reckon with. For that, we all realise that bringing down YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was important and for that joining hands with the TDP is investable,” Hari Ramajogaiah said. But it doesn’t mean that entire power would be vested in the hands of the TDP, he observed.

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He wanted Pawan Kalyan to ensure that 80 percent of the weaker sections and 25 percent of the Kapus get maximum seats in the TDP-JSP combine. He said that 31 Kapus got elected in 2019. “Pawan Kalyan must answer on how many seats in Godavari, Krishna, and Guntur districts where Kapus are in majority will get ominated. How many seats in Rayalasseem with a 4 lakh balija population and how many toorpu kapus will get nominated in north Andhra,” he said.

He demanded Pawan Kalyan to spell out how he would satisfy the Kapus who were following him with a blind belief by settling for fewer seats and not even demanding half of the five-year tenure as Chief Minister.

“We will partially win the war for social justice even if you secure at least 50 seats. If you just follow the dictums of the TDP and satisfy with paltry seats and no share of power the TDP-JSP experiment would fail confirming our worst fears,” he concluded.