Now that Jana Sena Party chief and power star Pawan Kalyan won the assembly elections from Pithapuram constituency, veteran Kapu leader and former minister Mudragada Padmanabham has decided to give up his Kapu community tag and convert himself into a Reddy.
Before the recent assembly elections, Mudragada joined the YSR Congress party in the presence of chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and was given the responsibility of campaigning for party candidate Vanga Geetha in Pithapuram.
During the electioneering, Mudragada vowed to defeat Pawan Kalyan in the elections and challenged that if at all Pavan Kalyan won the elections, he would give up his Kapu tag and change his name as Mudragada Padmanabha Reddy.
Though Pawan did not respond to his challenge, Mudragada stuck to his word. Even his daughter found fault with him for making such a challenge and asked him to get ready for the name change.
Now that Pawan Kalyan won the Pithapuram assembly seat with a huge margin of over 60,000 votes, Mudragada responded quickly. At a press conference held at his residence at Kirlampudi, the former minister announced that he was changing his name to Padmanabha Reddy.
He said he was applying for a gazette notification for change of his name from Padmanbham to Padmanabha Reddy. He showed the application documents for the same. He regretted that he could not fulfil his vow of defeating Pawan Kalyan.
Mudragada observed that the people had not voted for welfare schemes of Jagan Mohan Reddy. “As a result, no government in future will be willing to implement the welfare schemes, as people will not vote for them at all,” he said.