It was on a cold late evening in December 1988, when Congress MLA Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga Rao, a Kapu icon was murdered in Vijayawada with bombs and sharp weapons. Ironically, he was fasting to demand more security for him from the TDP government as well as issues related to land patta allotment for the poor. It has been close to 34 years since then.
There were widespread allegations then that the TDP leaders were behind this gruesome murder. In retaliation, the supporters of Ranga burnt the properties of TDP leaders in Krishna and other Coastal Andhra districts.
Devineni Nehru was accused of masterminding it with Kodela and Chandrababu being the ones who planned it. All these things didn’t go through the scrutiny of law then. But one thing for sure is that it was the TDP that was in power then and Vangaveeti was clear that his security was intentionally degraded to attack or harm him. This was also the time when the Kapunadu movement was gathering momentum.
While Congress was dominated by Reddy’s, Kamma’s saw TDP as their own party and this caused heartburn among Kapus, who were numerically much more superior. They wanted to taste power and Vangaveeti was their icon, who was the potential CM candidate in case Congress comes to power.
The chances of TDP losing and Congress coming back in 1989 was real and it also happened after the elections. The irony is that even though Ranga’s widow Rathnakumari won the Assembly elections on a Congress ticket, she later moved to the TDP. Currently her son Vangaveeti Radhakrishna is with the TDP.
The TDP leaders have made it a high voltage drama to commemorate the death anniversary of Ranga in Coastal districts. The state has many challenges before it and all political parties need to fight with the Centre to get more funds for development. TDP has been doing its best to rake up such issues so that it can show there is a lot of mileage for the yellow party and project as if the ruling party is in decline.
By unnecessarily disturbing law and order it is not wise for TDP to do this way. The Vangaveeti murder issue is controversial even to this day and when fingers are still pointed at TDP, one wonders how the party can sensationalize this issue, if not for disturbing the peace and harmony. Why churn this issue now?
