Actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi. , Photo Credit: PTI
heyN On July 18, Jana Sena Party (JSP) president Pawan Kalyan was called to attend the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meeting in New Delhi. After the meeting, the actor-turned-politician met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in private. Later, he also met Home Minister Amit Shah and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda. His presence in these meetings confirmed the JSP’s alliance with the BJP and its presence in the NDA. It may also prompt the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) to rethink its political strategy in Andhra Pradesh.
Mr. Kalyan took the opportunity to criticize the ruling YSRCP in New Delhi and speak to the national media. He suggested that the BJP open its arms to all parties that intend to trouble the YSRCP government. He has repeatedly indicated that the 2014 winning combination of BJP, JSP and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) should return to ensure that Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy is no longer in power.
Mr. Kalyan founded JSP in 2014. He did not contest the 2014 general and assembly elections, but provided outside support to the BJP-TDP alliance. The alliance won and Chandrababu Naidu of TDP became the chief minister for the third time. However, in 2018, the JSP became disillusioned with the TDP and the NDA over the issues of agrarian distress and non-grant of ‘Special Category Status’ for the state, which was promised during the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014, and left the alliance. In 2019, JSP contested the assembly elections along with Left parties and Bahujan Samaj Party, but fared poorly. Despite contesting all 175 assembly seats, it won only the Razole assembly seat. The next year it again joined the NDA alliance. Since then, Mr. Kalyan has met Mr. Modi at least twice, and Mr. Shah and Mr. Nadda several times.
Since his defeat in 2019, Mr. Kalyan’s popularity as a politician has grown. The overwhelming response to his Varahi Yatra, launched to “expose” all the “misdeeds and corruption” of the government and the debt burden on the state, is an indication. They intend to cover the entire state in the next few months.
TDP leader Nara Lokesh’s visit is also attracting crowds, including in Sri Reddy’s stronghold Cuddapah. After Mr Naidu pulled out of the alliance with the NDA, it did not look like the TDP and the BJP would patch up in the near future. But of late, Mr. Naidu, whom Mr. Reddy has called an opportunist, has been warming up to both the BJP and the JSP. This has led to speculation that this combination could be in the works again.
Although it sounds great on paper, there are many challenges ahead. Since Mr. Kalyan belongs to the Kapu community, the JSP is seen as a Kapu party. The Kapu population in the state is about 30%. So far, Andhra Pradesh has not fielded any chief minister from this community. Aware of this, Sri Reddy is encouraging Mudragada Padmanabham, another strong Kapu leader from Godavari district, a Kapu constituency, to re-enter politics. Recently, Mr. Padmanabham came out of his political hibernation, but did not declare his political affiliation.
However, if there is a demand for a Kapu chief minister, it may unhappiness Mr. Naidu and the Kamma community. Despite constituting less than 10% of the population, the Kammas are economically strong. In 2008, when Mr. Kalyan’s elder brother and popular matinee star K.K. When Chiranjeevi launched the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP), Kapu fully supported it. But the merger of PRP with Congress angered this community. Significantly, the politics of Andhra Pradesh has always been dominated by the Reddy and Kamma communities.
Second, despite Mr. Kalyan’s good relations with the BJP leadership, there has been a lack of coordination between JSP and BJP workers. There will be a need to pay attention to this.
The third challenge is about the face of the alliance. There could be some issues on this front as both Mr. Naidu and Mr. Kalyan may insist on being the face of the alliance. BJP may also have its own priorities. Mr. Kalyan has clearly said that the face for the post of Chief Minister will be decided after the elections. However, this may prove to be a bad strategy ahead of the elections as Sri Reddy’s welfare schemes are popular across the state.
Lastly, although Mr. Kalyan has a large following among the youth, his party lacks strong leaders. If he only relies on his image, it could backfire, as it happened in 2019.