Will Pawan Kalyan emerge as the 'Political Power Star'?
Two leaders of telugu Desam, including a three-time andhra pradesh lawmaker, left the party on monday to join coalition partner Jana Sena. Mandali buddha Prasad, a former Deputy Speaker of the andhra pradesh legislature and avanigadda MLA for the congress in 1999, 2004 and 2014, as well as a tdp MLA in 2014, will now run as an nda candidate in Avanigadda. The TDP's defeated candidate from Palakonda, Nimmaka Jayakrishna, changed to the Jana Sena and is probably going to run on their ticket in the upcoming election.
Given that the tdp and the Jana Sena are allies under the nda, why did prasad and Jayakrishna choose to quit Chandrababu Naidu? The Jana Sena had been given two seats as part of the seat-sharing deal, not because they were hostile towards the tdp chairman. In these constituencies, the local tdp cadre argued that they should select the alliance's candidate.
No candidate in Pawan Kalyan's group was strong enough to challenge the YSRCP, which had won both seats in 2019. Thus, the two leaders' calculated transfer from the tdp to the JSP. For the record, the Jana Sena claims that it preferred to field seasoned candidates over novices.
This move significantly reduces Pawan's influence even while it demonstrates his readiness to be adaptable for the benefit of the alliance. The Jana Sena cadre once thought that in order for the party to become a major role in the power struggle, it would have to compete for at least 60 of the 175 assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh. The leadership reduced that figure to 40 before settling on 24 seats as a condition of the agreement with the TDP. This has made Pawan less of a bargaining chip.
The Jana Sena was forced to forfeit three assembly seats and one lok sabha seat after the bjp joined the party, making the final count 21 assembly seats and two lok sabha seats. There are now tdp leaders posing as JSP candidates, which begs the issue of how strong the party actually is locally.
Go back to september 2023, when chandrababu naidu was taken into custody and placed in rajahmundry Central Prison in connection with the Skill Development case. When Pawan supported the embattled Naidu at the risk of upsetting his formal political partner, the bjp, which was then unfriendly towards the tdp leader, Pawan gained the hearts of tdp cadres. When the leader of the Jana Sena party said that he would run in the elections alongside the tdp, members of his party anticipated an equal partnership between the two parties.
In contrast, Pawan has stuck with the YSRCP, even Jagan, despite labels like "Call sheet politician" and "Naidu's adopted son" being thrown at him. Therefore, 2024 will tell whether or not this crowd-pleaser, who in tollywood is known as a "Power Star," eventually experiences political power.