Senior Telugu Desam Party leader and former MLA Bonda Umamaheshwar Rao on Tuesday came up with an interesting demand: that Vijayawada district should be named after prominent Kapu leader late Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga, rather than legendary actor and TDP founder N T Rama Rao.
Speaking to reporters, Bonda Uma said late Ranga’s name was synonymous with Vijayawada and there was no place where one could not find the statue of the slain Kapu leader.
He announced that he would take out a dharna with thousands of people on Wednesay demanding that Vijayawada should be named after Ranga.
“If necessary, we shall also lay siege to the residence of chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy at Tadepalli to put forth our demand,” he said.
The TDP leader said Ranga had laid down his life, while undertaking fast unto death for the poor people of Vijayawada.
“If Vijayawada is named after such a great leader, it amounts to insulting him. Jagan will remain in the history as a betrayer of Kapus, if he doesn’t concede our demand,” he said.
On the naming of Vijayawada as NTR district, Bonda Uma said since NTR’s native village was in Machiliapatnam parliamentary constituency, the government should rename Krishna district after the former chief minister.
“But under any circumstances, Vijayawada should be named after Ranga,” he demanded.
The TDP leader said he was also extending an invitation to Ranga’s son and former MLA Vangaveeti Radhakrishna to the proposed dharna on Wednesday.
“I could not reach out to him, as he is not available in Vijayawada. I am inviting him through media to join our programme,” he said.
He wondered whether Radhakrishna might be lobbying with the Jagan government through his friends Kodali Nani and Vallabhaneni Vamsi of the YSRC for renaming Vijayawada after Ranga.
“He has good equations with both the YSRC leaders. Maybe, he is trying through them as well,” he said.
He reminded that both the MLAs had attended the unveiling of Ranga’s statue on December 26, on the occasion of Ranga’s death anniversary.
“If those two leaders can put a word to the chief minister, the latter would agree for changing the name of Vijayawada as Ranga district,” the TDP leader said.