Even as Jana Sena Party chief and power star Pawan Kalyani is strongly pitching for an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party headed by former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu in the ensuing assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, he is not willing to compromise on the seats his party would be contesting.
Sources said Pawan Kalyan has already started identifying the constituencies where he would field his party candidates, irrespective of the fact that these constituencies are the strongholds of the TDP, which is facing tough competition from the contenders.
Over the past few days, Pawan Kalyan has been appointing in-charges of his party in the constituencies where the TDP has considerable strength and would want to contest in the 2024 Lok Sabha and assembly polls. This would mean, the Jana Sena chief would field his candidates there.
“This indicates that Pawan Kalyan is not going to compromise on the seats his party would be contesting. He will have a tough bargaining with the TDP on seat sharing and also the seats where he wants to field the candidates,” a party source said.
For instance, Pawan Kalyan appointed Thangella Uday Srinivas, Battula Balaramakrishna, and TV Rama Rao as in-charges of the Pithapuran, Rajanagaram, and Kovvur segments.
All these constituencies are in the Godavari region, where Pawan Kalyan’s strength lies due to the concentration of Kapus, the community to which the actor-turned-politician belongs.
But in the last elections, the Jana Sena lost these seats badly, while the TDP put up an impressive show, despite losing to the YSRC.
For example, in Pithapuram, TDP candidate SVSN Varma polled 68,470 votes in the 2019 polls, but lost to the YSRCP’s Pandem Dorababu, who secured 83,459 votes. Jana Sena candidate Makineedi Seshukumari polled only 28,011 votes.
In Kovvur, YSRCP candidate Taneti Vanitha won polling 79,892 votes, defeating the TDP’s Vangalapudi Anita, who polled 54,644 votes. In this constituency, the Jana Sena-backed BSP candidate Thamabalapalli Ravi Kumar polled just 11,677 votes. The in-charge now appointed by Pawan Kalyan was once a TDP MLA.
In Rajanagaram segment, YSRCP’s Jakkampudi Raja won with 90,680 votes in 2019, defeating the TDP’s Pendurthi Venkatesh, who polled 50,680 votes.
In all three segments, the TDP candidates are aspiring to contest again — or the TDP leadership thinks that its nominee has a chance to win and doesn’t want to lose the seats to the ally.
In Pendurthi constituency in Visakhapatnam, too, Jana Sena Party is going to field newly-inducted former MLA Panchakarla Ramesh Babu, while the TDP is planning to field Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy or his son.
So, there is going to be tough contest between Jana Sena and the TDP, forget about the YSRCP!
