When Pawan Kalyan linked up his three marriages to three capitals

VISAKHAPATNAM: Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan, who tore apart the YSRCP and Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy in Visakhapatnam on Sunday over the arrest of his partymen, also made the atmosphere light by speaking about his three marriages. Guess what, he sewed up his polygamous personal life with the more serious three-capitals issue and even gave a free advice to his detractors to follow in his footsteps.

The brief episode, which provided a comic breather during a serious monologue of the Jana Sena chief, came during a press meet he addressed to condemn the arrest of his partymen on Saturday night. The mercurial actor-turned-politician is known for hogging headlines with his uncanny knack of linking any two issues that are poles apart and contradictory in nature. A few glimpses of this trait were witnessed on Sunday when the leader tried to roast the YSRCP men including Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy but ended up with meandering observations. The issue at the centre of his argument was decentralisation and the campaign to make Visakhapatnam the administrative capital of the state. In an attempt to stoutly defend his stand to oppose it, he came up with an analogy that may have instantly enthralled the ordinary 'Jana Sainiks' but sounded far from convincing for the discerning.

Pawan Kalyan, among many comparisons, questioned YS Jagan's decision-making right on all aspects while treating his cabinet colleagues as deadwood. He wondered how Jagan can press for decentralisation when he alone controls the centralised power. Either by convenience or ignorance, Pawan Kalyan appeared to have jumped over the fact that the chief minister heads a cabinet of ministers which vets and ratifies crucial decisions. Also, the chief minister himself was the first to bat for the decentralisation of administrative power through the creation of three capitals, which simply reduces the Jana Sena chief's contention to a hollow rhetoric.

In yet another similar reaction, Pawan Kalyan himself raked up his three marriages issue and offered the YSRCP leaders a baffling piece of advice. The Jana Sena chief was asked how he would treat the YSRCP criticism that he was opposing Visakhapatnam as the capital even after having his first wife from this very city. Pawan Kalyan quickly retorted saying that he had no qualms in either admitting or talking about his three marriages out in public.

He wondered if the YSRCP was going in for the three-capitals idea just because he went for three marriages. While calling out the ruling party leaders for their 'silly logics', he gave them unsolicited advice asking them to follow in his footsteps and become polygamists like him.

Though Pawan Kalyan's remark evoked some peals of laughter, it sounded too dumb especially since it was spoken in connection with a far more serious three-capitals issue.

This was not the first time the Power Star dabbled with the issue of his multiple marriages in public. Every time he did, it came with the suspicion that he was either demonstrating a personal guilt that was deeply embedded inside or was simply making fun of himself before he could be derided by others.