Former CBI Joint Director V V Lakshminarayana, who had joined Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party (JSP) last year, quit the party on Monday. Lakshminarayana has probed a number of high-profile cases, most prominently the disproportionate assets case against YSRCP chief and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, among others.
Lakshminarayana had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as a Jana Sena candidate from Visakhapatnam, and was one of the key member leaders of JSP. In a letter addressed to JSP chief Pawan Kalyan, Lakshminarayana wrote that his reason for quitting was the actor-turned-politician’s inconsistent words on his commitment to politics and his film career. “You have said several times in the past that you will dedicate your entire life to serve the people, and that you will not act in films. But your decision to now act in films again shows that you do not hold consistent policies".
Lakshminarayana took voluntary retirement from the Indian Police Service (IPS) in April 2018, after which he announced his intention to enter politics. He had created a flutter in May 2018 when he attended an RSS convention in the outskirts of Hyderabad, giving rise to speculation that he would join the BJP. Although the BJP and the TDP had both shown keen interest in inviting him, and rumours suggested that he might even start his own party, Lakshminarayana ended up joining hands with Pawan Kalyan in March 2019.
While the JSP was in alliance with the TDP and BJP in 2014, the party contested elections for the first time in 2019 in alliance with the BSP, CPI and CPI(M). After losing the election both constituencies he had contested from, and in spite of the party faring poorly in general, Pawan Kalyan had said that he would stay in politics till his last breath, fighting for people's issues. Recently, Pawan Kalyan once again announced the JSP’s alliance with the BJP. He is also shooting his next film, a Telugu remake of the Hindi film Pink, and is rumoured to have signed another film.
Besides Jagan’s DA case, Lakshminarayana has also handled the Obulapuram mining case, in which the Ballari Reddy brothers were accused of indulging in illegal mining besides the investigation into the financial fraud by Byrraju Ramalingaraju of Satyam Computers.