Kapu community is traditionally a strong hold of Telugu Desam Party. In 1983 when NTR floated Telugu Desam Party, he had given record number of seats to Kapu community and the then assembly also had record number of MLAs from the community. So, they are always a loyal vote bank to TDP until Chiranjeevi floated Praja Rajyam Party. Almost 30-35 Kapu leaders have come out of TDP and joined PRP then. Even though the party failed to register victory, it could break away major chunk of Kapu voting and defeat the anti-government vote. Kapus have pinned high hopes on Chiranjeevi but was let down by PRP’s merger in to Congress.
In the wake of 2014 elections, all the parties tried to consolidate Kapu voting. Congress after Kiran’s resignation tried to implant Chiranjeevi in CM post and get their support. But fearing a backlash from their own leaders, it refrained from the move and imposed President’s rule in the state. On the other side, Telugu Desam Party Supremo Chandra Babu Naidu is quick in his moves and brought back Kapu leaders who left TDP to PRP back and attracted the community towards him.
When every one thought that Kapus will be looking at TDP in next election, Pawan Kalyan Political party rumours changed the entire scenario. There are doubts that the community votes may be divided once again between both the parties. However Kapu community is still fresh with the memories of PRP merger, they are in a dilemma if or not to trust Pawan Kalyan. A Kapu leader from East Godavari says “We are confused right now. We are tempted to support Pawan Kalyan but the memories of PRP are haunting us. It will be a historical blunder if we support Pawan Kalyan and some thing sort of PRP happens. We are very much undecided now”.
