Black belt, cult figure, actor turned politician Pawan Kalyan breaks stereotypes to become Deputy CM of AP

AMARAVATI: Seldom have we witnessed an actor with such determination and loyalty as Konidela Kalyan Babu AKA Pawan Kalyan the younger brother of Mega Star Chiranjeevi.

First, he came out of the shadow of his big brother who already scaled heights in Tollywood with his super hits year after year. Pawan Kalyan learned a lesson or two on discipline from his Karate classes where he earned a blackbelt and also an award ‘Pawan’ as he was swift like a breeze in landing punches on opponents.

Pawan Kalyan made his acting debut in 1996 with ‘Akkada Ammayi Ikkada Abbayi’, followed by ‘Gokulamlo Seeta’ and ‘Tholi Prema’ in 1999. The film directed by A. Karunakaran won the National award and six Nandi awards that year.

After the success of Toli Prema and ‘Khushi’ Pawan Kalyan never looked back and earned his fan base apart from that of his big brother Chiranjeevi. He found a place in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list many a time and won a Filmfare award and a SIIMA award among other recognitions.

PRP-Entry into politics

In 2008, Kalyan entered into politics as the youth wing ‘Yuva Rajyam’ president of his brother Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam Party (PRP). However, he never contested on the PRP ticket or held any constitutional post during his days in the PRP. He used to campaign for PRP but has withdrawn from campaigning after a sunstroke during a roadshow at Vizag on 19 April 2009. He left active political life sulking against his brother’s decision to merge PRP with the Congress in 2011.

Jana Sena Party

Power Star Pawan Kalyan founded the Jana Sena Party (JSP) in March 2014. Kalyan also founded and ran an NGO the ‘Common Man Protection Force’, but discontinued it after a while.

Attracted to the nationalistic political idealogy of the BJP he met Prime Minister candidate Narendra Modi at that time to discuss pending issues related to the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. He extended outside support to the TDP and the BJP in the 2014 elections. The TDP won the elections and Nara Chandrababu Naidu became the first CM of the residual State of Andhra Pradesh.

After the strengthening party base in Rayalaseema and the north coastal AP in August 2017, he announced that he would enter full-time politics starting in October 2017 once he completed his film commitments.

Pawan Kalyan successfully brought the Uddanam kidney issue to public knowledge forcing the then Chandrababu Nadu’s Government to take action. In November 2016, Kalyan announced that JSP would contest the 2019 elections. He stated that he was planning to contest from all 175 legislatures of Andhra Pradesh without any alliance. Then came the JSP manifesto at the Rajahmundry public meeting. He roped in the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and the Bahujan Samaj Party for the 2019 elections in both Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The Jana Sena Party has contested 140 constituencies in the 2019 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections. Kalyan has contested two constituencies – Gajuwaka and Bhimavaram both dominated by Kapus. He has lost in both to candidates from the YSR Congress Party. JSP won only Razole, Assembly Constituency.

Back to BJP fold

After a gap of three years on 16 January 2020, Kalyan announced his party's alliance with BJP. After the arrest of TDP chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu in the skill scam case, Pawan Kalyan declared that JSP would work with TDP to stop the split of the anti-incumbency vote against the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRCP.

While the BJP was averse to stitching relations with Chandrababu Naidu who dumped the saffron party for the UPA in 2019, Pawan Kalyan used his influence with the BJP bigwigs to rope in the TDP creating a formidable TDP-JSP-BJP combine.

Pawan Kalyan was instrumental in motivating the youth to defeat YSRCP. He also sacrificed a lot of personal space as the YSRCP attacked him on his delicate personal issue of multiple marriages.

The Jana Sena Party contested 21 constituencies in the 2024 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election. He contested from Pithapuram constituency. He won by a margin of more than 70,000 votes defeating Vanga Geetha of YSRCP. Jana Sena Party won in all the contested 21 constituencies and 2 Lok Sabha seats.

On June 12, 2024, he took oath as the Cabinet Minister in Nara Chandrababu Naidu’s cabinet to take over as the Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.