YS Jagan and his party derived a lot of political benefit by talking openly about alleged caste bias in TDP. He and his party leaders never shied away from making evidence-free allegations that Chandrababu Naidu government was favouring Kammas.
Even after coming to power, Jagan tried to associate TDP with caste when he abandoned Amaravati and left the farmers in the lurch. He attacked even Ramoji Rao and his paper Eenadu from a caste angle. Even Bharat Biotech, which produced indigenous vaccine for Covid-19 was not spared in this caste diatribe.
However, TDP and Chandrababu Naidu did not focus on the caste angle in YSRCP even though YS Jagan indiscriminately filled a large chunk of the government posts with Reddys. There are more Reddys everywhere in his government compared to any other government in the past.
Jagan is probably the first Chief Minister who has his Chief Secretary and his DGP from his own caste. Besides, a lion’s share of important nominated posts such as chairpersons of various corporations are from his community. Most of the important advisors to the government are again Reddys.
Despite such blatant misuse of power by Jagan Reddy to benefit his own community, the TDP somehow has always been very shy about opening criticising the development.
Even in Vizianagaram where he conducted his roadshow yesterday, Chandrababu Naidu only touched upon the fact that Jagan appointed his kinsmen to lord over various regions of the state. He pointed out how Vijaya Sai Reddy was sent to supervise the north Andhra region. However, he did not even mention the names of Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy or even Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, even though he referred to them indirectly.
That shows that Chandrababu Naidu still won’t like to lower the standard of political discourse. But given the current political atmosphere in Andhra, such decency in politics may not work in TDP’s favour.
