After dilly-dallying for weeks, Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan finally gathered courage on Saturday to announce their TDP-Jana Sena combine’s first list of candidates for the 2024 Assembly elections.
While Chandrababu Naidu revealed the names of his party’s 94 candidates, it was announced by both the TDP chief and Pawan Kalyan that the Jana Sena would contest in 24 Assembly and three Lok Sabha seats. This development came as a big disappointment for the Jana Sena leaders and aspirants who were hankering for an allotment of at least 58 Assembly seats for their party.
Even out of these 24, Pawan Kalyan was able to announce the candidates for only five seats, asserting that other nominees would be finalised through subsequent lists. Notably, Pawan Kalyan also kept his own name out of the first list while his deputy Nadendla Manohar’s candidature was announced from Tenali. This instantly gave weight to the long-standing perception that Pawan Kalyan intends to keep his candidacy and his chosen constituency under tight wraps till the very last minute. His detractors from the YSRCP always ridicule him, saying that the actor-turned-politician suffers from ‘Jagan phobia’ even though he tries to take the YSRCP chief head-on in public.
In 2019, Pawan kalyan was defeated from both Bhimavaram and Gajuwaka Assembly constituencies. It is speculated that he would once again test his fortunes from Bhimavaram in 2024. However, it is widely believed that the Jana Sena chief is afraid of announcing his constituency well in advance as he fears that would give ample time for YS Jagan and his YSRCP to devise strategies to ensure his defeat.
Speaking on this occasion, Pawan Kalyan tried to justify the logic behind limiting his party’s contest to only 24 seats, in his own inimitable way. But that too turned out to be farcical like most of his public musings. Sitting beside Chandrababu Naidu, Pawan Kalyan said that it would be better to keep his party candidates in fray in only 24 Assembly seats, given their past experiences, especially in the 2019 elections. However, he hastened to add that, since the Jana Sena would also be contesting for three Lok Sabha seats, one should presume that the party would be fighting it out on the ground in close to 40 (Assembly) seats.
This turned out to be a comical analysis as the party’s fight in the Assembly segments will eventually be tallied against the three Parliamentary constituencies and cannot be counted as part of the actual Assembly seats. Pawan Kalyan did not hide his attempts here as he was largely trying to pre-empt the anticipated anger within the Jana Sena circles for his climbdown on 24 Assembly seats. But by coming up with such a flimsy and notional assessment on such a grim issue, he once again exposed his lack of maturity in serious politics.
Netizens have already started trolling the actor-turned-politician, taking off on one of his popular filmy dialogues, “Naaku konchem thikkundi… Kaani, daaniko lekkundi” (There is a method to my madness). What he flaunted before the media on Saturday in the presence of Chandrababu Naidu would only be seen as ‘madness’ for sure but without any method or logic.
Ever since Pawan Kalyan mooted the alliance plan with the TDP and the BJP, there has been this speculation that the Jana Sena chief will simply settle for a few ‘crumbs’ thrown at him by Chandrababu Naidu when it comes to seat-sharing. There were enough angry reactions from his party cadre and especially leaders from his Kapu community including Chegondi Harirama Jogaiah. While some of them vowed to upset his apple cart, others warned that it would lead to disaster if he did not ensure at least 58 Assembly seats for Jana Sena.
Harirama Jogaiah has in fact written a spate of open letters to Pawan Kalyan on this issue. Realising the growing discontent, Pawan Kalyan had even tried to reassure his partymen that Jana Sena would be allotted adequate number of seats to uphold its pride and respectability. But his Saturday’s announcement only showed that he made hollow promises. His decision is only going to be received with a deep sense of betrayal, both inside his party and within the Kapu-community-dominated pockets of the coastal Andhra Pradesh districts. How the mercurial leader battles this fire will be known in the days to come before the elections.