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Open to alliance with TDP for 2024 Andhra polls, says Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan
Our party is ready to join hands with the TDP to achieve the common objective of pulling down the YSR Congress party from power in the next elections. But it depends on the response from the TDP,” Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan said.
Popular Tollywood actor and Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan has offered to ally with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), headed by former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, for the 2024 assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, provided Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is part of the alliance.
Addressing the party functionaries at a meeting at the party headquarters in Mangalagiri in the Guntur district on Saturday evening, Pawan Kalyan said at present, Jana Sena has an alliance with the BJP in the state, and it would continue in the coming days.
“However, our party is ready to join hands with the TDP to achieve the common objective of pulling down the YSR Congress party from power in the next elections. But it depends on the response from the TDP,” he said.
He reminded me that Naidu had earlier said the TDP was interested in allying with the Jana Sena, but it should not be a one-sided love. “Now, the TDP chief says it will be a one-sided war in the next elections. So, it is for the TDP to decide how it wants to go about,” the actor-turned-politician said.
Pawan reminded us that the Jana Sena had supported the TDP-BJP combine in 2014. “We came down several steps in the past in the interest of the state. It is for the TDP to come down a bit (if it is interested in the alliance),” he said.
Quoting from the Bible, Pawan said: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. The TDP leaders should remember this verse.”
Pawan clarified that he has three options before him about alliances: one, Jana Sena will go to the polls in alliance with the BJP; Jana Sena, along with BJP and the TDP, will go to polls together: and third, Jana Sena will go it alone in the elections. “It is for the TDP and the BJP to take a call on this. All I want to emphasise is that I want people to win the elections this time,” he noted.
However, the Jana Sena Party president told his party functionaries not to bother too much about the alliances and get into a confrontation with others. “We shall go about with our task of strengthening the party at all levels,” he said.
Pawan admitted that there had not been much coordination between the Jana Sena and the BJP despite being alliance partners all these days. “It is true that there has been a gap between the two parties for quite some time. We could not take up any joint programmes because of Coronavirus. We shall work out join programmes hereafter,” he said.
Andhra Pradesh unit of the BJP, which is holding a rally “Godavari Garjana” in Rajahmundry on Monday, did not invite Pawan Kalyan. The rally would be addressed by BJP national president J P Nadda. “I have no information about the rally, and I won’t meet Nadda Ji,” the Jana Sena chief said.
BJP national vice-president and former Union minister Daggubati Purandeshwari said the party would continue to have an alliance with Jana Sena in the next elections. “There is some gap between the two parties at the field level, but broadly, there is a consensus between the two. With regard to the alliance with the other parties, our national leadership will take a call at the time of elections,” she said.
However, TDP politburo member Varla Ramaiah said it was too early to comment on Pawan Kalyan’s offer of the alliance with the TDP. “We shall take a call at an appropriate time,” he said.
For the last few weeks, Naidu and Pawan Kalyan have been hinting at a possible alliance between them. On May 9, Naidu said his party was ready to make certain sacrifices if necessary to join hands with like-minded forces to defeat the YSR Congress party, led by chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy.
His comments follow the remarks made by Pawan at the Jana Sena Party meeting in Mangalagiri on March 14 that there was a need for all democratic forces to come together to defeat Jagan. He declared that he would take the initiative in preventing the split of the anti-incumbency vote in Andhra Pradesh.
