Two days after Jana Sena Party (JSP) president Pawan Kalyan met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he took to Twitter to shower praises on Modi. Pawan said that the Prime Minister had proved his mettle in governance and that he had infused a spirit of nationalism by overcoming divisive forces and managed to embrace cultural diversities. But sources told TNM that Pawan’s meeting with Modi in Visakhapatnam on November 11, did not go too well as the PM was unenthusiastic about Pawan’s suggestion for an alliance.
Sources in the BJP said that the Prime Minister did not show much excitement about Pawan’s pitch for an alliance of the TDP, JSP and the BJP, during the closed door meeting. It is also learnt that the Prime Minister told Pawan Kalyan that “one cannot sail in two boats.”
Following the meeting with the Prime Minister, the JSP chief addressed the media and said, “I had an invitation to meet the Prime Minister during his Andhra Pradesh tour. It is after eight years that I have met the Prime Minister since I had met him earlier, after his victory in 2014. Today’s meeting happened under a special circumstance. The main intention behind the meeting was the PM’s hope that Andhra Pradesh should develop and the people of the state should fare well. The unity of the people should be intact. He inquired about a lot of issues. I believe that the outcome of this meeting will do good for Andhra and the people.”
Commenting on the meeting between both the leaders, Andhra Pradesh Tourism Minister RK Roja alleged that the Jana Sena chief was ignored by the Prime Minister. The Minister alleged that PM Modi had realised that Pawan Kalyan was making “incoherent statements” and that the state BJP leaders were disappointed with Pawan’s “politically inconsistent” behaviour.
BJP sources have told TNM that the Prime Minister held a closed-door meeting with around 25 BJP leaders on November 11 when he was in Visakhapatnam. In the meeting, the PM is said to have told the leaders to continue working on ground with the people and concentrate on highlighting central schemes to the people. He also asked the Andhra unit to prepare a chargesheet against YSRCP and to expose corruption in the various departments in the YSRCP government.
TNM also learnt that the Prime Minister inquired about the growth of Pawan Kalyan in the state. He is also supposed to have expressed concern about the way the state unit of the saffron party was functioning. The Prime Minister asked the state unit to strengthen the youth wing. He also conveyed that a tribal university would be launched in Andhra in the first week of December by President Droupadi Murmu.