A War Begins Between BJP’s Kanna And Jagan

Kanna Laskhminarayana has now amplified the anti-Naidu rhetoric in BJP. The BJP is no longer in the company of TDP. The saffron party looks to be inching towards Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Now, Jagan’s attempt to scrap Amaravati as capital and shift the executive capital to Visakhapatnam created division within the party.

While state unit president Kanna Lakshminarayana’s supporters have unleashed a virulent campaign against Jagan’s plan to shift the capital, another group, which argues that selecting the location of the capital is prerogative of the state government, has extended silent support to Jagan.

After Jagan’s meetings with PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, Kanna has intensified his campaign against the decision to scrap Amaravati as capital. The campaign reached a crescendo the other day when he addressed the women of Amaravati at Tullur on the 75th day of their “Save Amaravati” agitation.

“Jagan is shifting the capital from Amaravati to Vizag only to loot the port-city. When in opposition, Jagan extended support to the Amaravati construction? Now, as CM, he found that Chandrababu Naidu did not leave behind anything to loot.” Kanna told the gathering.

Jagan was taking revenge on Andhra people for not giving him the power in 2014. Amaravati would remain capital and only capital of Andhra Pradesh, he added.

When the national party is silent, and the national spokesperson GVLN Rao said the capital building is prerogative of the state government, why has Kanna taken this extreme stand?

Grapevine has it that YSRC is promoting Somu Virraju, former MLC as the next president of the Andhra BJP. Virraju, a known admirer of Jagan, is said to be favoring an alliance between YSRC and BJP.

Sources close to Kanna told media that Jagan lodged a complaint against Kanna on his Amaravati stand with Amit Shah. Jagan reportedly told Shah that by opposing the decentralization of the capital, Kanna was only strengthening the TDP in the state, and he wanted no trouble for his government from BJP.

Kanna supporters allege that YSRC chief is batting to appoint Somu Virraju as the next AP BJP president.