Jana Sena Party (JSP) president and Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan on Saturday said he would never play the caste card for political gain.

“The entire Kapu community is being dragged into politics by divisive forces and I am identified as a Kapu as part of a conspiracy. Those bent on creating unrest in society are using caste to achieve their objectives,” Mr. Pawan Kalyan insisted, calling upon the JSP cadres to thwart their designs.

Addressing a meeting of the JSP’s information collection committees near Mangalagiri, Mr. Pawan Kalyan said he wished that the country should have common hostels instead of separate ones for children of the Backward Classes and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, as constant attempts were being made to divide society in the name of caste. He called for efforts to unite castes to achieve the larger goal of national integration.

The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) would do all sorts of political manipulation in the name of caste to undermine the coalition government, the Deputy Chief Minister said, emphasising the need for political empowerment of all castes.

He asserted that it was in the nature of the YSRCP to support even criminals, depending on their caste, and that by highlighting the caste identity (Kapu) of a criminal who was in the news recently, the whole community was being labelled in a particular manner.

Mr. Pawan Kalyan said the JSP leaders and cadres should stand by the party’s ideologies and strive to reach higher internal positions through merit and not expect their caste or other considerations would reap political dividend for them.

He said the Janasainiks and Veera Mahilaswere the torchbearers of the JSP and he would closely watch for how long an aspiring leader worked for the party and to what extent he or she served the people.

This would be the sole criterion to reach the political hierarchy, the JSP chief observed. Mr. Pawan Kalyan said the JSP was never against welfare schemes, but it would be a grave mistake to focus too much on it at the cost of development. He noted that the systems that had been ruined by the YSRCP Government were being restored with due focus on education, healthcare and infrastructure critical for the State to make the desired progress.