Jana Sena Party president and actor Pawan Kalyan, who has been touring Visakhapatnam as part of his Vaarahi Yatra and attacking the ruling YSR Congress party, would know that he would have to face the inevitable question from the rivals and also the local people.
Being an alliance partner of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the question that naturally arises is why he has been silent all these days when the Centre is trying to sell away the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, which is a sentimental issue of not only the steel plant workers and also local people.
So, when Pawan Kalyan visited Gajuwaka and addressed a rally there, he had to give an explanation to the people why he had not been able to anything on the steel plant privatisation issue.
He said he had tried his best to stop the privatisation of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant without alienating the BJP at the Centre.
“I have taken up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on several occasions whenever I met them. I requested them not to privatise it,” he said.
Stating that he could only make a request with the Centre and nothing more than that, as he did not have any stakes at the national level.
“I cannot proceed further, as I don’t have any MPs or MLAs to bring pressure on them,” he said.
The Jana Sena Party chief tried to turn tables on the YSR Congress party leaders saying that despite having large number of MPs, they had not fought against the Centre to prevent the steel plant privatisation.
“The YSRC MPs, especially, the Visakhapatnam MP, did not make efforts to stop the privatisation of the plant. Even chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy also did not make any sincere efforts at the Centre for safeguarding the interests of thousands of steel plant employees and people,” he alleged.
Expressing solidarity with the steel plant workers, Pawan Kalyan said he would try his best to stop the privatisation of the by convincing the BJP-led Centre.
