Till the other day, there had been reports that the Bharatiya Janata Party would project Jana Sena Party chief and power star Pawan Kalyan as its chief ministerial candidate and the alliance between BJP and Jana Sena was based on this premise.
Since the BJP does not have a leader who has charisma and the capacity to galvanise the Kapu voters, it was believed that the BJP has taken the decision to project Pawan Kalyan as CM candidate. Apparently, Pawan, too, joined hands with the BJP only with that hope.
However, on Thursday, BJP’s state unit president Somu Veerraju dropped a virtual bombshell on Pawan Kalyan.
He told the reporters that the BJP would project a Backward Classes leader as its chief ministerial candidate in the next elections and challenged whether the YSRC or the TDP could make a similar announcement.
Veerraju went on to say that the BJP was aiming at capturing power in Andhra Pradesh not to make anybody else as the chief minister.
“Our intention is to transform the state by taking up developmental programmes,” he said.
The state BJP said only the BJP has the guts to make a BC leader as the chief minister.
He claimed that all the BCs in the state were in favour of the BJP and a large number of BC leaders from YSRC and TDP, right from Srikalulam to Kurnool were evincing interest in joining the BJP.
Veerraju’s statement will definitely be a big blow to Pawan Kalyan, who was hoping to be the CM candidate of the BJP-Jana Sena combine.
Analysts wonder whether Veerraju’s statement was to checkmate Pawan Kalyan, who was adopting a tough stand on the Tirupati by-elections.
May be, it is an indication to the widening gap between Jana Sena and BJP. It remains to be seen whether Veerraju’s comments have any endorsement by the BJP national leadership.
