Pawan Kalyan’s camaraderie with TDP no more than playing a second fiddle

HYDERABAD: For sure actor Pawan Kalyan’s presence in the political arena can be described as the cliche, a square peg in a round hole. He has realised this fact even before he launched his self-styled political entity, Jana Sena Party. Barring registration with the Election Commission of India, there is hardly anything that he did in the last close to one decade, except for playing a second fiddle to the Telugu Desam Party.

His words and deeds, responses and reactions confirm almost always that the story, screenplay, dialogues, and direction are all lay centred in Telugu Desam Party and it’s supremo N Chandrababu Naidu.

His reflexes at times perplex even his admirers, for the ideology between the cliques of Pawan Kalyan’s fans and Telugu Desam supporters are diametrically opposite.

The maverick actor, who aced many roles on the silver screen in his domain of filmy firmament, converted the political amphitheater also into a theatre with his theatrics in his public appearances. He threw the proverbial towel to pave the way for the TDP-BJP combo to contest in 2014 elections and supported the alliance from outside. For sure, it wasn’t a facilitation without any benefit. And also, he had apparently developed cold feet even before entering the pool battle. Thus, his contribution to the vote share of the combine could not be effectively quantified.

Soon after the elections, he stood at political crossroads, aligning with Communists for some time. Though he consistently defended the acts of omission and commission, he portrayed himself as though he fell apart with the TDP and went ballistic against it. For some strange reasons again, he made a volte-face and began showering encomiums on Chandrababu Naidu and began camaraderie with him. After Naidu walked out of the BJP, Pawan Kalyan’s Janasena entered the electoral fray independently. Since the BJP, the TDP and the Janasena contested independently, the strength of each party could be assessed.

It is widely discussed that Pawan Kalyan’s party entered the fray with a view to splitting the anti-TDP vote to benefit the TDP. However, this did not work the way it was anticipated. Pawan Kalyan lost in the two constituencies of Gajuwaka and Bhimavaram where he had contested. Hai party won just one seat and even that legislator crossed over to the YSR Congress.

The Kapu vote bank rallied solidly behind the YSR Congress,

The results showed that 49.5 per cent vote share was bagged by the YSR Congress, while the Telugu Desam Party managed 39.2 per cent votes. Janasena’s strength was pegged at 6.1 per cent votes. The others shared the remainder of crumbs.

Realising his strength, Pawan Kalyan began spewing venom against YS Jagan and the ruling party. His soft-pedalling with the TDP, however, continued unabated. While the Communists flocked to the TDP as the latter broke its ties with the BJP, Pawan Kalyan continued to kowtow to the TDP and its supremo Chandrababu Naidu. His October rally in Vishakhapatnam blew out of proportions and the State Government clamped curbs on it using the law.

The next day. in his desperate bid to express solidarity with Pawan Kalyan, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu rushed to his hotel and held a joint press conference. This buttressed the YSR Congress party’s charge that the actor was just a proxy to the TDP and there is no difference between the two parties.

His exclusive meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi apparently didn’t yield the result he had desired. Though on record, the Jana Sena is an ally of the BJP, nothing of the actor’s actions seem to justify that. Meanwhile, the TDP’s media coterie has been sparing no efforts to stitch a coalition between the BJP and the TDP. In such case, Pawan’s space in the troika of the BJP, TDP and the Jana Sena would shrink further.

An unexpected blow to the Jana Sena came in the form of a towering K Chandrashekar Rao, president of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Telangana Chief Minister. A Pawan Kalyan supporter Thota Chandrasekhar, a retired IAS officer, joined the BRS and became president of its Andhra Pradesh unit. This naturally caused a financial dent as also drive wedge within the Kapu community votes.

Pawan Kalyan’s inconsistent political stands have inherently debilitated the party, as it doesn’t even have an organisational setup.

The fledgling Jana Sena’s political trepidation was exposed with its founder’s meeting with Chandrababu Naidu in Hyderabad on Sunday. Pawan continued to crow his support to the TDP. He has been relentlessly announcing that he will not let the anti-YSR Congress vote to her split among the opposition parties, making it overtly clear that he would toe the TDP line at any “cost”.

The media close to the TDP has already clarified to the people that the actor would wallow in the company of the TDP and wouldn’t fight alone. This has triggered a slew of criticisms from the Kapu leaders within the YSR Congress, as also outside. Pawan’s foibles are being called out by them who alleged that he pledged the self respect of the community at the feet of the TDP.

In a pact with the TDP, the actor can never expect to become the Chief Minister even if the TDP-led coalition could unseat the YSR Congress in 2024 elections.

The disappointment is writ large on the faces of the Kapu leaders those who did not owe allegiance to the YSR Congress.

Pawan failed to muster popular support first on behalf of the Parja Rajyam, led by his elder brother Chiranjeevi: and later on behalf of his own Jana Sena. He proved a failure in three successive elections and is now again willing to join as a junior partner with the TDP.

At this rate, his antics, angularities and theatrics would not pass muster, for the voting population are far too mature to fall for the high-decibel sloganeering. All his actions would be valued no more than a mono-action.