Actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party (JSP) will contest in 32 constituencies in Telangana state Assembly elections this year. JSP vice president Mahender Reddy said in a statement that formal committees have been set up in constituencies with a strong cadre base. Pawan Kalyan had formally joined hands with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh but there was no decision for a similar electoral alliance in Telangana.
“The alliance with TDP is only in AP. We contested elections last time also and we decided to do the same this year as well," said JSP spokesperson Hari Prasad when asked if there will be any alliance with the TDP in Telangana for the polls.
A JSP statement said Varahi Yatra, Pawan Kalyan's campaign rally, will soon be organised in districts where the party will contest seats. "Our leader Pawan Kalyan has formed the party on Telangana soil. In 25 places, we have substantial vote banks. Our voting determines the winner. The outcome of the recent Malkajgiri Parliament election (2019) illustrates this. We will focus on erstwhile districts of Khammam, Nalgonda, and constituencies under GHMC limits.”
JSP contested seven Lok Sabha seats during the general elections of 2019, including the Malkajgiri constituency in Hyderabad. Telangana Congress Pradesh Committee president Revanth Reddy, who secured 6,03,742 votes, defeated Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) candidate by a margin of 10,000 votes from the Malkajgiri seat. The JSP, which managed to draw over 28,000 votes, showed the ability to make the difference in a close contest.
Pawan Kalyan performed the puja for his campaign vehicle Varahai at Kondagattu temple in Jagtial district of Telangana ahead of his rally in Andhra Pradesh. In July this year, he had appointed in-charges for 26 Assembly constituencies in Telangana and instructed them to prepare for the upcoming Assembly elections.
In Andhra Pradesh, Jana Sena, which had supported the TDP and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance in the 2014 Assembly elections, broke-off ties with them in 2018 and contested the 2019 Assembly and Lok Sabha Elections on its own. Though it managed to win only the Razole seat in AP, performance of its candidates impacted the TDP across several constituencies, leading to the ruling YSR Congress Party pulling-off a massive victory with 151 out of 175 seats.
After the 2019 elections, Pawan Kalyan joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. After TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu’s arrest last month in the ‘Skill Development’ scam by the AP police, the JSP chief met Naidu in prison and formally joined hands with the TDP. He also later said that he is still with the NDA, which the TDP had left in 2018 after breaking-off ties with the BJP before the 2019 elections. It has been speculated that Naidu has been trying to re-join the NDA, but so far nothing has been formally announced.