Hyderabad: Sunday’s meeting between the chiefs of Telugu Desam and Jana Sena — N. Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan — has further strengthened the possibility of an electoral pact between the two parties. Kalyan drove to Naidu’s residence here earlier in the day.
A joint declaration to fight against the restrictions imposed by the YSR Congress government on rallies and public meetings, both parties believe, would consolidate their bonding that eventually would lead to an alliance, unless the TD spoils it by playing big brother.
While the YSRC, naturally, portrayed the meet as one more indication of Pawan Kalyan’s opportunistic politics, Jana Sena’s ally Bharatiya Janata Party too took the development with a pinch of salt. “How will the dream of Kapus to see a person of their community as Chief Minister be realised if Pawan joins hands with Naidu?” wondered senior BJP leader and party general secretary P. Vishnuvardhan Reddy.
Stoking the same Kapu sentiment, irrigation minister Ambati Rambabu alleged that Naidu is a “Kapu-hater” and even dared him to declare Pawan Kalyan as the Chief Ministerial candidate for their alliance. “Pawan is known for ditching parties,” he said in an apparent reference to the former cosying up with Naidu against the BJP’s wishes.
Interestingly, a deliberate attempt was made on social media to spread the list of Assembly segments purported to have been allotted to the Jana Sena. “It is absolutely nonsense. A poll pact or seat-sharing did not figure at all in the meeting,” Jana Sena political affairs committee chairman Nadendla Manohar told Deccan Chronicle.
Terming the meeting as a reciprocal gesture of his party chief, Manohar said Naidu had visited Pawan Kalyan in Vizag when the YSRC government had restricted the Jana Sena chief’s movements for two days, a few months ago. “Today, he met Naidu to extend solidarity. Nothing beyond should be read,” he added.
A senior TD leader, however, maintained that the meeting was a step towards a prospective alliance. “A positive mood is increasingly gaining ground among the cadres of the two parties but the alliance will depend on how genuine and sincere both are in, first, reaching an understanding on the number of seats each would be contesting and, then, the Assembly segments,” he pointed out.
