It has been nearly a month – February 24 to be precise – since Telugu Desam Party and Jana Sena Party released their first list of candidates. While TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu announced the names of 94 contestants in the first list, Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan announced only five names for assembly elections out of 24 seats allotted to it.
On March 14, Naidu announced the second list of 34 candidates, but Pawan Kalyan, whose assembly seats were reduced to 21 after the Bharatiya Janata Party joined the TDP-Jana Sena Party alliance, did not release any other list.
However, he has been announcing names of candidates now and then for one or two constituencies. For example, Pawan Kalyan declared himself as the candidate for Pithapuram assembly constituency on March 14.
A couple of days before that, he announced the candidature of Kandula Duresh for Nidadavolu assembly constituency. On Wednesday, he declared that retired IAS officer Deva Vara Prasad for Razole assembly seat.
Similarly, a few days ago, Pawan Kalyan admitted sitting YSRCP MLA from Tirupati Arani Srinivasulu into Jana Sena and declared him as the party candidate for the same seat.
And suddenly, he also announced the name of Tea Time founder Tangenella Uday Srinivas as the candidate for Kakinada Lok Sabha seat.
One fails to understand why Jana Sena Party chief is releasing the list of candidates in bits and pieces, instead of a complete list. He is announcing the names of candidates in his party meetings, rather than through media releases.
Apparently, Pawan has been facing tremendous pressure from the ticket aspirants. Though there too many aspirants, he is said to be not in a position to identify the right candidates.
He is said to be looking for those candidates, who has the caste support and also financial capabilities to take on the YSRCP. At the same time, he doesn’t have the mechanism to deal with disgruntled party leaders who do not get the party tickets.
Till recently, YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, too, used to release the names of candidates in short lists of two or three leaders in the name of party coordinators or in-charges. But finally, he released a comprehensive list of candidates for all 175 assembly seats and 25 Lok Sabha seats.
