TIRUPATI: Balija United Front (BUF) leaders have decided to meet Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and place before him the issue of according the Backward Class (BC) status to the Balija community. By Ugadi, the front will hold a public meeting in Tirupati with 30,000 members to show its strength.
The yet-to-be-registered apolitical body, which was formally launched on Sankranti, claims the support of Balijas, the 'economically-weaker cousins of coastal Kapus’ spread across the six districts of Chittoor, Nellore, Kadapa, Anantapur, Kurnool and Prakasam.
At a media conference here on Monday, caste leader and BUF founder O.V. Ramana breathed fire on Kapu leader Mudragada Padmanabham for ‘not lending his voice for the uplift of Balijas’. Mr. Ramana had recently launched a broadside against the Kapu leader for “taking all the benefits meant for the umbrella community to the coastal Kapus, leaving the Balijas in Rayalaseema high and dry”.
‘Benefits denied’
Mr. Ramana accused the Kapu leader of using Balijas as a shield for the entire community and preventing them from getting the BC status like the Munnuru Kapus of Telangana and Thoorpu Kapus of Uttarandhra, who succeeded after parting ways. Even Justice Manjunatha was of the opinion that the BC status would remain elusive to the Balijas as long as they remained with the economically-strong Kapus, he observed.
Mr. Ramana also alleged that 85 p.c. of benefits under the Kapu Corporation had been garnered by coastal Kapus, leaving very little for the Balijas.
