As the elections to Andhra Pradesh state assembly are fast approaching, caste equations have once again come to the fore in the state.The latest news is that prominent Kapu leader of Vijayawada Vangaveeti Radhakrishna, son of popular leader late Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga, along with his family members and followers, is most likely to take a plunge into the Jana Sena Party floated by power star Pawan Kalyan, who also belongs to Kapu community.

Radhakrishna is presently with the YSR Congress party but in the last couple of days, he has been staying away from the party activities after YSRC president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy announced former MLA Malladi Vishnu as the party in-charge of Vijayawada (central) assembly constituency.Radhakrishna, who has been nurturing Vijayawada central constituency for quite some after he was promised of the ticket from there.

Now with Vishnu entering the fray, Jagan is learnt to have asked Radhakrishna to contest from Machilipatnam Lok Sabha constituency in 2019, but the latter did not appreciate it.While his cousin Vangaveetin Srinivas Prasad resigned from the YSRC and other posts in protest, Radhakrishna is learnt to have gone into hiding and might take a decision in a day or two on coming out of the YSRC.

“He is in touch with Pawan Kalyan and if everything works out, he and his followers might join the Jana Sena,” sources said.In fact, there was a talk a few months ago that Radhakrishna might join the Telugu Desam Party next week.The TDP leaders also openly claimed it. But later, he dropped the idea after Jagan spoke to him in Hyderabad. Radha told media later that he would continue in the YSRC till the end and there was no plan to join the TDP.

He, however, did not hide his displeasure either. Nobody has consulted me from the TDP.“There is a time for everything. I cannot say anything right now. I am doing my own work,” he said then.

Visakhapatnam: Two cinema theatres were gutted in a huge fire here on Monday, police said. There were no casualties.

A short circuit is suspected to have caused the fire in the Kanya and Sree Kanya theatres located in the same building at Gajuwaka area.According to the police, a sweeper noticed smoke coming out of the building and alerted the staff but by the time fire engines rushed to the spot, both the theatres were completely gutted.

Fire fighting personnel with eight fire engines battled to douse the blaze. The loss is estimated to be Rs 3 crore.

BJP leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh on Sunday kicked up row when he commented that India may have to witness another partition in 2047 due to its growing population.

While the country might have witnessed a partition in 1947 on the basis of religion, the problem would arise in the future as the population has gone up from 33 crore to 135.7 crore in 72 years, the Union Minister opined. Without naming a sect or a community, the BJP leader wrote on his Twitter handle that the explosion divisive forces is dreadful to image in the days to come.

Referring to the ongoing controversy over article 35A of the Indian Constitution, which renders special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Giriraj Singh predicted that similar situation might happen in 2047. He said the population has gone up from 33 crores to 135 crores in the last 73 years. At present there is severe uproar over discussion on Article 35A and it will become impossible to even mention about Bharat in the times to come, he said.

During an interview with a news channel, the Union Minister said that increasing population is a big issue in India and there should be debate over the issue from street to Parliament (sadak to sansad). He also stressed the need for a debate on definition of minorities. He further opined that if strict laws are not made on population control then the country is going to suffer.

Pawan Kalyan said to have reacted on the Mahaa Murthy’s ‘Sting Operation’ on the fund raising by Janasena political party. Responding over the issue in the party’s internal meeting, Pawan said to have taken the issue lightly and asked the colleagues and fellow leaders to not to give much importance to such issues and not to be part of any unwanted controversies. Pawan simply asked to ignore such issues and told that ‘People will understand’.

Janasena party’s official spokesperson Vijay Babu stated that the party is ready to receive both brickbats and bouquets. He said party hasn’t responded on the issue officially. It said the party doesn’t want to trouble the individual journalist (Murthy).

P Vijay Babu opined that Murthy has given more mileage to Janasena by highlighting that the party is in dire need of funds. He said Janasena doesn’t get commissions from contractors or projects or from mining barons. He said now this would reach out to people who could voluntarily offer their funds to party.

While Telangana is going to early elections, most likely in November or December and all political parties are getting ready with their list of candidates, a panic situation has gripped the MLAs of various parties in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh as well.

Party sources said ruling Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is also getting ready for shortlisting the party candidates for the ensuing assembly elections, though they are still seven months away.

It is learnt he has started getting a final survey done through various sources to identify the potential candidates who have fair chances of winning and others whose chances are bleak, so that he can replace them with alternative candidates.

While the Real Time Governance set up at the CMO in the Velagapudi Secretariat is serving as an ideal source of getting people’s feedback on the performance of the MLAs in their respective constituencies, Naidu is also getting reports from the state intelligence department and independent survey teams under the leadership of experts from Sri Venkateshwara University in Tirupati.

“After corroborating all the reports, Naidu would come to a conclusion on the candidates to be fielded in the next elections,” a source said.On the other hand, YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy is solely banking on the teams of Indian Political Action Committee founded by political strategist Prashant Kishor, besides getting feedback from his own party network.

Unlike in the past, he has decided not to depend on the reports of Sakshi media house.As the elections are fast approaching, the reports of various surveys are causing tense moments to the MLAs.It is learnt some of the MLAs have also commissioned their own independent surveys on the chances of winning and also to change the public perception, so that they would give right feedback about them during the surveys of the party leaderships.

“Each MLA is engaging teams of students to get the feedback in the villages and if there are any lapses, they could rectify the same in the next three or four months,” sources said.