Pawan Kalyan Slams Jagan for Leaving AP Assets in TS'

VIJAYAWADA: Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan has alleged that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had left properties worth thousands of crores of erstwhile AP in Telangana after the 2014 bifurcation.

Pawan Kalyan alleged that the CM did this in order to protect his assets worth Rs 300 crore in Telangana.

He was taking part in a programme where several leaders from the Turpu Kapu Welfare Union from the north Andhra region joined the Jana Sena. The event was at Bhimavaram in West Godavari on Tuesday.

The JS chief asked the CM how AP’s properties could be left “unsettled” in Telangana. He also criticised the YSRC leaders for their “failure” to protest when the Telangana government delisted 23 castes from its BC list.

Pawan Kalyan strongly advocated holding a census of backward classes so that it would help find out how many people belonged to which caste, based on the proportion of their population. “I would help provide them justice,” he said.

He urged all the political parties to demand a BC census or caste-based census.

Maintaining that AP was having a strong caste system, Pawan Kalyan expressed his concern that there was no uniform development of the people belonging to various communities. He felt the need for the people to question the disparity among the castes and fight for equal opportunity for all castes in jobs and other fields of human endeavour.

Pawan Kalyan said he would not tolerate injustice to the backward classes, the Dalits and the poor. He said a section of the political leaders are on a looting spree and grabbing public wealth.

The JS chief said Thurpu Kapus from three districts of the north Andhra region would get a BC caste certificate. If they move out of the region, they fail to get it and if they move into Telangana, they would not be recognised even as BCs, he said.

Maintaining that the people from the Yadava community were being given BC caste certificates wherever they go, he asked why the “name rule” was not applicable to Thurpu Kapus. This meant denial of justice to Thurpu Kapus, he said.

The JS chief said his party wanted equal justice for both Yadavas and Thurpu Kapus.

He said that when caste groups were claiming that the population of Thurpu Kapus was 46 lakh, the TD identified them to be 26 lahks while the YSR Congress government further reduced the number to 16 lahks. The YSRC government must clarify on this -- on what basis they arrived at this low figure, he said.

Several Thrupu Kapu leaders including the All India Thurpu Kapu Samkshema Sangham president P. Chandramohan and other leaders like Venkata Rao, G. Jhansi, Lakshamana Naidu, M. Vishnu, B. Jayalakshmi and L. Balakrishna were among those who joined the Jana Sena in the presence of the party chief.

Earlier in the day, Pawan Kalyan was feeling indisposed due to exhaustion while camping at Bhimavaram in West Godavari as part of his ongoing AP tour. He complained of general weakness in the morning and wanted rest.  Moreover, no programmes were scheduled for the day except a meeting with the Thurpu Kapu community from the north Andhra region.

After Pawan Kalyan launched his AP tour on June 14, he has been interacting with the people in a Jana Vani programme to learn about their grievances, holding road shows and addressing public meetings. He is having only one meal a day; a vegetarian diet at that.