Mandal politics has entered Andhra Pradesh with the announcement of Chief Minister YS jagan Mohan Reddy regarding inclusiveness and social justice prevailing in his 25-member cabinet. In what is seen as an unconventional and unexpected move, the swearing-in of five Deputy Chief ministers, one each from Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Kapus and Muslim Minorities took place.
YSRCP gave a handout before the swearing-in ceremony which revealed that of the seven seats in the cabinet BCs are almost 50%, and five seats for SCs, one for STs, four for Kapus and one for Kshatriyas and Vaisyas respectively. However Chandrababu Naidu's Kammas, got only one seat in cabinet, while other five went to jagan’s community, including jagan. Kammas respect former chief minister and TDP founder NT Rama Rao, and his successor CBN as the representatives of their community and earlier jagan accused Naidu had caste prejudice to favor his own caste. jagan sent petition to the Chief Election Commission of india besides Telangana/Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan, accusing CBN of getting posts for his caste people in police and other government departments.
Kammas favoritism lead to TDP and CBN downfall in the 2019 elections. jagan comes after YSR who supported Ranga and made use of caste divide and achieved coalition of Kapus, SCs and the other groups. After gaining power in 2004 YSR targeted Kamma business people like Ch. Ramoji Rao.Coming to 2019 jagan impacted the TDP vote bank gaining close to 60% BC votes and Kapus also shifted to jagan this time.Kamma community ignorance in cabinet formation was expected as they could not expect anything from jagan government due to their loyalty to CBN.
