The Kapu community in Andhra Pradesh is likely to get the 5 per cent reservation in education and employment under the 10 per cent OBC quota. The issue was cleared in Rajya Sabha by Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Pratima Bhoumik, who said that the states are enabled to give the 10 per cent reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).

The Andhra Pradesh Assembly had passed a bill giving five per cent reservation to the Kapus from the 10 percent of the EWS. The TDP regime headed by chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu passed the bill in 2019 before the election.

However, the bill is not being implemented by the successive YSR Congress government headed by Jagan Mohan Reddy.

BJP MP, GVL Narasimha Rao, raised the question in the current winter session of the Parliament on Wednesday for which the Minister replied stating that the State governments are enabled to implement the reservation.

The Minister further said that the States have a separate list of the OBCs and can extend the 10 per cent reservation to those communities as the government may feel fit. The States were given the power as per the 105th constitutional amendment made in 2021, the Minister said.

It is now to be seen if the Jagan Mohan Reddy government would extend the five per cent reservations for the Kapus which was drawn by the TDP regime from the 10 per cent EWS quota.

With election fever slowly setting in Andhra Pradesh, all the major political parties are trying to court the numerically largest Kapu community. Major parties are sharpening their strategies to woo the Kapus, who are large in numbers but never had a CM from their community so far.

Leading the pack is YSRCP and its boss YS Jagan. He is trying to project his proximity to Kapu icon and mega star Chiranjeevi. He has ensured that Chiranjeevi is at the centre of the solution to the film theatre tickets issue. He also saw to it that Minister Perni Nani, a Kapu, is projected in the whole episode. Jagan’s overall plan appears to be to keep the Kapus away from the Jana Sena.

At the same time, TDP is trying to get closer to Kapus. It is trying to strike an alliance with the Kapu-dominated Jana Sena to garner Kapu votes for itself. The TDP is said to be behind the demand for renaming Krishna district after Kapu icon Vangaveeti Ranga. In fact, most of the leaders demanding the Ranga district are TDP leaders. The Jana Sena, on the other hand, is in alliance with the BJP, but could strike some alliance with the TDP at the last minute.

The other party, the BJP, too is pinning all its hopes on the Kapus. Party state chief Somu Veerraju himself is a Kapu. He has been meeting several Kapu leaders and is trying to tout the party’s alliance with the predominantly Kapu Jana Sena. The BJP has also asked former minister and former BJP state president Kanna Lakshminarayana to focus on Kapu vote bank. Thus, Kapus have become the most sought-after community these days in AP with every party trying to woo them.