The eagerness which Bharatiya Janata Party national leadership is showing to have an alliance with the Jana Sena Party headed by power star Pawan Kalyan in Telangana for the upcoming elections has not gone down well with the local BJP leaders.
Several BJP leaders in Telangana, except state BJP president G Kishan Reddy and BJP parliamentary board member K Laxman, are of the view that the party will gain nothing if it has an alliance with the Jana Sena Party.
“The Jana Sena Party has little presence in Telangana with no leaders and no cadre network. They have to bank only on the BJP cadre. No doubt, Pawan Kalyan has a filmy charisma to attract people, but it will not fetch votes,” a senior BJP leader said.
The BJP leaders point out that the Jana Sena Party has failed to make a mark in Andhra Pradesh, where it is believed to have considerable base, in 2019 elections.
“What can such a party do in Telangana? It will not be correct to expect that the power star will do any miracles in Andhra,” the party leader said.
What is worse, Jana Sena is asking for those seats where the BJP has strong presence like Kukatpally and Serilingampally. This is because Pawan thinks there are large number of Andhra voters and they would vote for his party.
“But he doesn’t have the cadre to campaign for the party and only the BJP workers have to campaign for Jana Sena Party candidates. How can we give up our strongholds?” the BJP leader asked.
There is also a talk that BJP-Jana Sena alliance may prove counterproductive for BJP, as has happened to the Congress in 2018 elections for forging an alliance with the TDP.
The BJP leaders point out that Jana Sena had contested five seats in 2019 Lok Sabha polls and lost deposits in all of them and expecting the party founder to help BJP to win seats in the upcoming assembly polls did not look practical.
However, some senior BJP leaders say Pawan Kalyan factor would certainly help the party in the border districts.
“We are not going to lose much, as we are offering only 5-10 seats,” a BJP leader said.
