Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

PRP denies ‘caste bias’

VIJAYAWADA: The Praja Rajyam Party leadership has launched a damage control exercise in the aftermath of its urban convener Kesineni Srinivas (Nani) making a series of allegations against the top rung leaders, including Chiranjeevi and Allu Aravind.

The leadership sought to defend Mr. Chiranjeevi for not granting an interview to Mr. Nani to discuss the issue of showdown with district convener M. Vijaya Nirmala.

Interestingly, the party on Thursday asked three leaders belonging to the Kamma community to refute the allegations of “caste bias” made by Mr. Nani against the leadership.

Yelamanchili Ravi, Boppana Bhava Kumar and A. Prabhakar addressed a press conference, where they singled out Mr. Nani for criticism over what had happened in the city office during the Republic Day celebrations.

Mr. Ravi asserted that leaders of all communities and castes were very much comfortable in the party and there was no truth in Mr. Nani’s allegations that only one community (Kapu) was getting prominence in the party.

“It is unfortunate that caste-based allegations are being made now. The important post of convener should not have been given to a person not having enough experience in politics. This is the problem they will create,” he said.

The leaders put up a bold posture, saying Mr. Nani’s charges and the controversy kicked off by him would not cause any harm to the party’s interests in any manner.

Mr. Bhava Kumar said with the exit of Mr. Nani, a certain kind of eclipse on the party had ended in the best interests of other leaders and workers. Mr. Nani and his men had acted “high-handedly” with everybody in the urban unit for which he had to pay the price ultimately.

Meanwhile, rumours did rounds in the party that several leaders and ticket aspirants were holding meetings to discuss their future course of action in the wake of Mr. Nani’s episode. Some were reportedly keen to join either the Congress or the Telugu Desam Party, instead of “wasting time and energy” in the PRP.

A certain amount of unease was witnessed in the PRP office in the city, as some impatient leaders were unwilling to cooperate with the office managers over conducting day-to-day activities. These restive leaders picked up arguments with the media as well over conduct of the press conference of Mr. Ravi and others. Scores of impatient leaders insisted that they be allowed to sit along with media persons and eventually prevailed over office managers on this count.

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