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Pawan Kalyan meets PM Modi amid talk of strained relation between Jana Sena, BJP
Tollywood actor and Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan said he had discussed various issues with the Prime Minister including the present political situation in the state
Popular Tollywood actor and Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam city on Friday night, amid talk of strained relations with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with which his party has been in alliance for the last three years.
Accompanied by Jana Sena Party political affairs committee convener Nadendla Manohar, the actor arrived at INS Chola suite in the Eastern Naval Command at around 9.30pm, where Modi had an overnight stay before launching a slew of projects in the port city on Saturday.
Speaking to reporters after meeting the Prime Minister, Pawan Kalyan said he had received a call from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) two days ago, confirming an appointment with him.
“It was for the first time after eight years that I had a meeting with the Prime Minister. The last time I met him was in 2014 when I took part in the election campaign in the state along with him. After he became the Prime Minister, I could not meet him again,” he said.
The actor said he had discussed various issues including the present political situation in the state. “He enquired about various issues pertaining to the state and the present political situation. I shared with him whatever information I had. He wished Andhra Pradesh to prosper on all fronts and people remain united,” he said.
Stating that the meeting with Modi took place in a peculiar situation, Pawan Kalyan hoped that the meeting would bring good days for the state and the people,”. He, however, did not elaborate on what exactly he had shared with the Prime Minister.
After meeting the actor, PM Modi also held a meeting with the BJP state core committee headed by party state unit president Somu Veerraju, to discuss the efforts to be made to strengthen the party and its expansion in Andhra Pradesh.
Veerraju told reporters that the Prime Minister gave a direction to the party on how to reach out to the people and explain what the Centre had done to the state and its development. “It was an inspiring interaction,” he said.
Earlier, the BJP leaders in the state held an impressive road show from the airport to the Eastern Naval Command, where the Prime Minister stayed. A large number of people and the BJP workers showered petals on Modi’s convoy.
The alliance between Jana Sena Party and the BJP has been rocks for over a year and both the parties have been adopting independent strategies to fight against the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in the state and the actor began getting closer to the Telugu Desam Party led by N Chandrababu Naidu.
During his visit to Visakhapatnam on October 15 to attend Jana Vani programme to attend to the public grievances, Pawan Kalyan was confined to the hotel for nearly 36 hours by the police on law-and-order grounds. But he did not receive much support from the BJP.
On his return to Vijayawada the following day, the actor declared that all was not well between him and the BJP and he was terribly upset with the lack of any road map from the saffron party in the fight against the anti-people policies of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government. He said he was running out of time and had to take his own decisions.
Within an hour, the TDP chief called on Pawan Kalyan at Vijayawada and both issued a joint statement saying there was a need to fight together against the Jagan government. This led to the talk that Pawan and Naidu are likely to forge an alliance ahead of the next assembly elections in Andhra.
Pawan Kalyan’s meeting with Modi assumed significance and it would be interesting to see whether he would continue the alliance with the BJP or join hands with the TDP.
