Nagarjuna 'spills the beans' on his rumoured entry into politics

HYDERABAD: Is Tollywood hero Akkineni Nagarjuna in the contention for the Vijayawada Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 general elections? There has been intense speculation in the last few days that the senior actor, who is known for his close ties with the YSRCP, especially Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, will be fielded by the ruling party from this politically prominent seat.

Rumours kept flying thick and fast in the recent past claiming that YS Jagan had almost zeroed in on Nagarjuna as the ideal bet for a contest from Vijayawada. The YSRCP, incidentally fielded another personality related to Tollywood, Potluri Vara Prasad, a businessman and film producer, during the 2019 elections. He was however defeated by TDP's Kesineni Nani, who subsequently became a thorn in the flesh for the opposition party.

It was rumoured that, with no potent alternative in sight, the YSRCP leadership thought it best to field Nagarjuna from this commercial nerve-centre in its bid to wrest the seat from the TDP. But seeing the rumour mills working overtime, scripting his political future, the senior Tollywood actor decided to come out into the open and put an end to the suspense.

Responding to the media reports, Nagarjuna scotched all the rumours about him making his electoral debut in the 2019 polls. He rubbished the reports claiming that he would contest on a YSRCP ticket from Vijayawada as baseless. On a lighter note, he said that he got used to this type of misinformation campaign over the last 15 years, every time there was an election.

Making it amply clear that he was at a safe distance from active politics, he however said that he would be game for portraying the role of a powerful political leader if ever he stumbled on a good script.