Vijayawada political story-4

Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga was a congress man. After the death of his brother Radha, he took over the responsibilities of the gang . Devineni Brothers formed their own gang were growing strong. Ranga was losing control. So, the easiest solution he had was to get rid of the head in the rival group. So, Devineni Gandhi became the first victim in 1979 as a revenge for Radha’s murder.  Ranga became a municipal corporator in 1981. He was always in and out of the jail because there many cases involving him.

NTR’s entry into the politics changed the fortunes of the Devineni Nehru group. They gained a lot of strength. NTR needed people to finance the party. The settlement politics peeped in! They were getting stronger and stronger day by day.

NTR was a film-actor, who was from the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. He started his career in Vijayawada as a milk-seller. Today he is treated as a legend by the people of his community. They never let anyone speak a word about him. So, I am not going to speak a word instead I’ll have a whole post dedicated to his holiness’s name in the series.

Ranga arranged community meetings and encouraged his people to support him. The rowdies Ranga and Nehru started encouraging the students to live for their castes and if needed die for them! The students were never students! To put it straight, today’s Osmania rowdies… Oh do you call them students? Ok then, today’s Osmania students are a lot better than the Bezawada students of that time. The UI and USO student organizations of V.M.Ranga and Devineni Murali were very active during the time.

The two groups drew muscle in their own way. Nehru started growing strong in Kankipadu region, to the east of Vijayawada and Ranga in the Krishna lanka region. Both groups fought for their supremacy over Kaleswara Rao market, a market named after the great Ayyadevara Kaleswara Rao,the first Speaker of AP legislature.  Many small Birds died in the attempts.

Nehru became an MLA from Telugu Desam Party. NTR’s charisma worked and TDP came to power in 1983. So, Ranga’s life is in threat now!  How did he encounter it? What reforms did NTR bring to avoid the gang war? Who’s party is Telugu Desam really? The death of Devineni Murali and the vengeance. The next few posts should go off the main story because of the strong political hand.

Stay tuned for the next one!!