It looks like the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership has virtually dropped its alliance partner in Andhra Pradesh, Jana Sena Party, headed by power star Pawan Kalyan, like a hot potato.
It was all the more evident from the absence of Jana Sena Party leaders at the airport in Hyderabad or helipad at Sunnipenta in Srisailam, when former BJP national president and Union home minister Amit Shah came to have darshan of Lord Bhramaramba Mallikarjuna Swamy on Thursday.
While all the BJP leaders from Andhra Pradesh were present there to receive Shah, not a single leader from Jana Sena Party, leave alone Pawan Kalyan, was visible during his tour, much to the surprise of political observers.
In fact, it was a good opportunity for Pawan Kalyan to meet Shah for a brief talk and re-establish the ties with the BJP in the state.
In the past, Pawan could not get an appointment with the Union home minister even once, when the latter was the national BJP president or later.
Apparently, the BJP leaders have stopped inviting Jana Sena Party leaders for any meeting to discuss the joint strategy to fight against the YSR Congress party government.
They have been taking it easy with Pawan Kalyan after the by-elections to Tirupati parliamentary seat this April, as he went back into his own shell.
The BJP leaders are of the view that the people of the state have stopped seeing Pawan Kalyan as a serious politician and so, there is no additional mileage the BJP would get from Jana Sena.
Many of them still suspect that Pawan Kalyan still has a lot of affinity towards Chandrababu Naidu and that would turn out to be negative for the BJP.
“Perhaps that is the reason why Amit Shah, too, did not make any enquiry about Jana Sena and particularly Pawan Kalyan, during his short visit to Srisailam,” the BJP sources said.
