Former CBI officer Lakshminarayana launches new political outfit in Andhra

Former CBI officer VV Lakshminarayana announced the launch of a new political party, Jai Bharat National Party (JBNP), at Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh on Friday.

Addressing the media after the launch, he said his party would strive for eradication of corruption from public life and work towards tackling unemployment among the youth.

Lakshminarayana, who hails from a numerically strong Kapu caste, belonged to the 1990 batch of Maharashtra IPS cadre.

Incidentally, JBNP is the second political party to be launched by a former IPS officer and the third one by an All-India Service officer in the state.

In 1997, the then DGP, MV Bhaskar Rao, quit the service and launched a party called Andhra Nadu. Later in 2006, former IAS officer Jayaprakash Narayan established Lok Satta to “cleanse politics”. But both failed to make a headway despite their lofty ideals.

Known for his upright character and unblemished career, Lakshminarayana was emphatic that unemployment in Andhra Pradesh could have been resolved to a great extent had the political parties of the state fought for the Special Category Status (SCS), which the Centre had promised at the time of the creation of Telangana in February 2014. He assured that his party would fight for SCS for Andhra Pradesh.

High-profile cases

Lakshminarayana became a household name in combined Andhra Pradesh when he initiated probe into high-profile cases against YS Jaganmohan Reddy, now Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Gali Janardhan Reddy, then a minister in Yadiyurappa’s cabinet in Karnataka, and Ramalinga Raju of Satyam Computers, as the Joint Director (JD) of CBI.

His investigations into these cases led to the arrest of Jaganmohan Reddy in May 2012. Earlier in September 2011, Gali Janardhan Reddy, a minister of the Yadiyurappa cabinet, was arrested. In a state where the arrest of a politician was almost next to impossible, taking into custody the son of a venerated former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy, in a disproportionate assets case, made Lakshminarayana a cult figure of sorts among the people.

The media stories about his style of interrogation, the way he raided the house of Gali Janardhan Reddy in Bellary, Karnataka, and the silent arrest of Jaganmohan Reddy following a three-day non-stop interrogation transformed the IPS officer into a 'dare-devil action hero'. Fan clubs mushroomed across the state. His actions made him popular as ‘JD’ Lakshminarayana instead of VV Lakshminarayana. Schools and colleges started inviting him to address the students. People and media still call him ‘JD’ Lakshminayarana.

Political career

In March 2018, he took voluntary retirement from IPS and joined Andhra politics, at a time when Jaganmohan Reddy had been accusing him of being an agent of Congress and Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

A few months before the 2019 general elections, he joined Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena and unsuccessfully contested from the Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency. He lost to the YSRCP candidate in a triangular fight. Though he ended up in the third position he had secured nearly 23 per cent of the total votes polled. After the 2019 polls, Pawan Kalyan and Lakshminarayana parted ways.

Kapu identity

Though he preaches nationalist values like a member of a Sangh Parivar, Lakshminarayana could not escape being branded as a Kapu leader. JBNP is seen as the fourth party launched by a member of the aspirational Kapu community after the advent of Kamma TDP in 1982. A chief minister from the Kapus remains a distant dream for the caste.

Peeved by the ill-treatment at the hands of TDP leadership in 1997, the then DGP, MV Bhaskar Rao, a Kapu official, quit the service and launched a party called Andhra Nadu. However, the community did not flock to the party.

Later in 2008, Telugu Megastar Chiranjeevi, banking on his Kapu caste’s imaginary support, launched the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) and won 18 seats in the 2009 Assembly elections. But unable to run the party, he merged it with Congress and became a central minister in the UPA government.

In 2014, Pawan Kalyan, Chiranjeevi’s brother and a popular actor, floated Jana Sena which is still struggling to survive in the state where YSR Congress and the Telugu Desam Party dominate the politics.

Tough road ahead

Observers see little future for the second Kapu party in Andhra Pradesh. They feel the traits of personal integrity and honesty are a liability rather than an advantage for a leader.

“Lakshminarayana may attract a few votes. Wresting seats from YSRC and TDP is difficult for the new party given the voters’ tendency to favour a person who can defeat the candidate they don’t like. Here people like Lakshminarayana don’t fit the bill,” former Congress MP Undavalli Arunkumar remarked in a press meet on Saturday.

In his view, this was the reason behind JD’s defeat in Vizag in 2019. “Despite his popularity as an honest man he ended up in a third position. Why? The voters favoured a party that could defeat the TDP,” he said.

Little political space

Noted political observer V Lakshman Reddy said there was little space for a fourth party in Andhra Pradesh. “Jagan, Chandrababu, and Pawan are leading three parties namely YSR Congress, TDP, and Jana Sena respectively. The voters are polarised among these leaders. Where is the space for the SBNP,” wondered Reddy.

Why new party?

After distancing himself from Jana Sena, Laskhminarayana wanted to join an existing party but could not succeed. “He was not welcome in YSR Congress. TDP was not interested in JD because Jagan would show this as a vindication of his charge that TDP was responsible for CBI cases and his arrest. BJP had not invited him because the move would annoy Jagan. So, he has no option but to float a party to remain relevant in politics,” said a former Jana Sena colleague of JD on condition of anonymity.