Jana Sena Party leader and power star Pawan Kalyan has been maintaining stoic silence over forging alliances and keeping the cards close to his chest on his relationship with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Telugu Desam Party.
He is neither disclosing his stand on continuing the alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, nor is he openly coming out with his plans to forge an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party.
While the BJP leaders continue to claim that they have an alliance with Jana Sena Party, he is neither denying it nor agreeing with it.
At the same time, he is not responding to the allegations of the YSR Congress party leaders that he is an adopted son of TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu.
Under these circumstances, Pawan is now forced to disclose his stand – whether he will sail with the BJP or go with the TDP. The occasion is the forthcoming MLC elections under graduates’ constituency from north-coastal Andhra districts.
The BJP has once again fielded P V N Madhav, the outgoing MLC whose term will come to an end by March 29. On the other hand, the TDP has initially announced the candidature of Ch Lakshmi Kumari from Bhimili but later roped in Vepada Chiranjeevi who belongs to Kapu community.
Both the BJP and the TDP are now banking on the support from Jana Sena, as Pawan Kalyan has a lot of craze among the young graduate voters in north coastal Andhra.
The Jana Sena vote is crucial for both the parties to defeat YSRC candidate state Brahmin Corporation chairman Sitamraju Sudhakar.
Pawan Kalyan knows that if there is a split in the Kapu votes between BJP and TDP candidates, the YSRC will walk away with a comfortable win. Since the power star is hell bent on preventing a split in the Kapu votes, he has to support either the BJP or the TDP candidate.
So, it is time for Pawan Kalyan to come out with a clear stand – whether he will go with the BJP or sail with the TDP.
“In a way, the BJP has fixed the power star by jumping into the fray. It remains to be seen what stand he will take,” an analyst said.
