Ending weeks of uncertainty, Janasena (JSP) chief Pawan Kalyan finally gathered enough courage to announce that he would be contesting for the Andhra Pradesh Assembly from Pithapuram. He revealed this on Thursday while addressing a meeting of his JSP workers.
The party activists heaved a sigh of relief, seeing their leader finally shedding his inhibitions on his constituency, something that he kept close to his chest over the last several weeks. Though he unveiled his Assembly ambitions from Pithapuram, he is still indecisive on whether to simultaneously contest for Lok Sabha or not. Referring to this, he reportedly told his Janasainiks that he would take a call on this very soon after consulting ‘elders’ (peddalu). He however did not specify who these ‘elders’ would be.
The cryptic statement already had many tongues lashing, especially from the ruling YSRCP. They mocked the actor-turned-politician, stating that he was obviously referring to a pending green signal from Chandrababu Naidu. Ideally, Pawan Kalyan revealing his constituency should have sparked off boundless revelry from both the Janasainiks and his fans in Andhra Pradesh. But his statement evoked a lukewarm response from them, who seem to be extremely unhappy with their chivalrous leader for jeopardising Janasena’s interests during the seat-sharing exercise with the TDP and BJP.
In the 2019 elections, Pawan Kalyan’s maiden electoral attempt ended in a disaster as he tasted humiliating defeat in both Bhimavaram and Gajuwaka Assembly constituencies. Until today, there had been nerve-wracking suspense for both his partymen and the media as the mercurial leader kept oscillating from one Assembly constituency to the other. He toyed with several seats including Gajuwaka, Anakapalle, Bhimavaram, Kakinada, Pithapuram and Tirupati in the last 10 or so days.
His hesitation to announce his constituency/constituencies well in advance was widely attributed to ‘Jagan phobia’ that, many believe, he suffers from. Having learnt from his 2019 experiment, the Power Star was doubly cautious and refrained from disclosing his choice of constituency well in advance. Pawan Kalyan reportedly considers Pithapuram as a safe bet for him this time around as the constituency has a 91,000 Kapu population as against a total electorate of 2.28 lakh