Pawan Kalyan leaves Tirupati Lok Sabha seat for BJP, angers cadre

In an unexpected turn of events, Tollywood hero Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party sacrificed the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh for its ally, the BJP, for the ensuing by-elections.

Pawan’s move apparently dampened the spirits of his party workers, who openly vent their anger using social media. The party workers and fans posted aggressive comments on the party’s Facebook wall, which had Pawan Kalyan’s statement declaring support to the BJP candidate.

By-election to Tirupati LS seat was necessitated after the death of sitting MP Balli Durga Prasad of the YSR Congress Party in September last year. The seat is reserved for the Scheduled Caste category.

While Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was the first to announce its candidate, as early as January, the YSR Congress declared its candidate, a doctor, a little later. Former Union Minister Panabaka Lakshmi is the TDP nominee. BJP is likely to finalise the name of Karnataka former chief secretary Ratna Prabha.

Also read: How Pawan Kalyan may be the X factor in Andhra Pradesh polls

BJP has been in alliance with the Jana Sena Party ever since the two parties faced a rout in Assembly and general elections in April 2019. When they fought the elections separately, the Jana Sena Party polled 8.89 percent votes, while the BJP’s vote share was only 0.90 percent (2, 17,814). In fact, the BJP polled far less than the 1.50 percent (3,65,814) votes polled by the NOTA (None of The Above).

Even in Tirupati, where the Balija community is dominant with close to 15 percent votes, the Jana Sena supported the Bahujan Samaj Party, which polled 1.26 percent, the BJP standing behind it with 1.22 percent. Pawan’s elder brother, Chiranjeevi, won as MLA from Tirupati, which proves the Balija community’s support for the star family, which belongs to the Kapu community. The Balija community constitutes over 15 percent of the voter population in Tirupati LS constituency.

Also read: Curious silence of megastar Chiranjeevi

Pawan issued a media statement on Friday night (March 12) to justify his call. He said the decision to support the BJP was taken in the interest of the state. “The BJP top leadership, including JP Nadda and Amit Shah, had assured me of developing the pilgrim town of Tirupati, which will have cascading affect on the entire Rayalaseema region,” he said. Pawan Kalyan chose to remind the party rank and file that the BJP had won the Tirupati seat in 1999 (when in alliance with the TDP). He also said that the candidate named by the BJP was strong enough to win the seat.

Kalyan’s reasoning did not go down well with the party cadre though. “Instead, you should have merged the party with BJP,” some tweeted while others said “the decision has demoralised party workers”.

The cadre base of the Jana Sena Party mostly comprises youth. In the recently concluded municipal elections, Jana Sena activists campaigned hard. Therefore, they were disappointed with Kalyan’s decision.

Political analyst Chalasani Narendra said, “The decision to leave the Tirupati seat for BJP is a political blunder of the Jana Sena Party. Pawan missed an opportunity to at least stand second, though victory was never possible for him.”

Meanwhile, BJP state president Somu Veerraju convened a meeting of senior leaders in Vijayawada to discuss the strategy for the Tirupati polls.