PK goes on yatra amid talk of alliance with TDP, BJP

Visakhapatnam Almost six months after a raging controversy over the colour of his campaign vehicle, Jana Sena Party founder Pawan Kalyan, popularly called ‘Power Star’ by his fans, launched ‘Varahi Vijaya Yatra’ from Annavaram after offering prayers at the famous Satyanarayana Swamy temple on Wednesday.

The specially designed campaign vehicle named Varahi became a bone of contention following hue and cry raised by the YSRCP leaders over its colour matching with the military vehicles. The vehicle after obtaining registration No TS13EX8384 from Telangana RTA, its video clip was uploaded on JSP’s twitter handle in December. The tweet went viral with the YSRCP Ministers and leaders saying the actor was violating law by painting olive green which was promptly denied by Jana Sainiks who claimed that its actual colour was emerald green.

Ahead of his Janavani programme, roadshows to establish direct interaction with the public at the grassroots to know their problems and explain to them about the JSP’s approach to politics, Pawan Kalyan took part in ‘Dharma Yagam’ at his party’s central office at Mangalagiri in Guntur district.

In view of the first phase of the yatra covering 11 Assembly segments in both undivided Godavari districts for next 10 days, strongholds of Kapus, a powerful community in Andhra politics, elaborate arrangements was made by the party cadres. The party also sought to mobilise volunteers for the success of the programme through its social media accounts. It also prepared attractive songs for broadcasting during the roadshows.

The first public meeting was held at Kathipudi. Meetings are slated to be held at Pithapuram, Kakinada, Mummidivaram, Amalapuram, Malkipuram and Narsapuram. Pawan Kalyan’s thrust of attack during the yatra will be on the failures of YSRCP Government led by Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and the failure to make any development in Amaravati after the proposal to form three capitals. In the recent past, Pawan Kalyan is moving closely with TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and has gone on record on several occasions to contest the upcoming elections nine months later in 2024 by putting up a united face by the Opposition parties.

The actor-cum-politician, whose JSP is presently in the BJP-led NDA alliance, wants BJP to join hands with TDP and JSP to unseat YSRCP from power. BJP, while reiterating that their alliance with JSP is intact, has been maintaining silence over his hints at fighting together with TDP and JSP. TDP walked out of NDA after spitting venom against BJP for denying Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh in 2018. However, of late, TDP has toned down its critical posture against the saffron brigade and its national president Chandrababu Naidu recently called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi. It is believed that the prevailing political situation in the State figured during the meeting though the contents of the talks have been kept a secret by both BJP and TDP due to apparent reasons.

During the 2019 elections, JSP could win only one Assembly seat though it went to the polls by aligning with CPI, CPI (M) and Bahujan Samaj Party. While JSP could get 2 to 4 per cent of votes, its partners CPI, CPI (M) and BSP respectively secured 0.11, 0.32 and 0.28 per cent.

While YSRCP was way ahead of others by capturing 151 seats securing nearly 50 per cent of vote share, TDP was able to find 23 in its kitty polling 39.6 per cent of votes. However, during the post-poll analysis, TDP leaders admitted that JSP had marred their winning prospects in at least 40 Assembly seats. In the 2014 elections, JSP decided not to field candidates but to campaign extensively in support of TDP-BJP alliance in the State. The TDP-BJP alliance emerged victorious in the elections held for the first time after bifurcation by obtaining 46.79 per cent of votes - 2 per cent less than the vote share of YSRCP.

With BJP recently adopting an aggressive stand against YSRCP with vitriolic attack on its style functioning by its national president J P Nadda at Srikalahasti and Home Minister Amit Shah in Visakhapatnam during his recent roadshows to celebrate nine years in office by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy declared that his party will go it alone in the next elections as they have ‘partnered’ with the common man through a series of pro-poor policies.

With political parties getting into elections mode and the Chief Minister declaring that he will shift his base to Visakhapatnam in September, political observers predict a lot of dramatic turn of events in the State in the near future.