Television show presenter Teenmaar Mallanna, who gave a tough fight to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in the recent Legislative Council elections, on Sunday said he has no plans to float a political party. Mallanna, whose real name is C Naveen Kumar, also clarified that he will not be contesting next month's bye-election to the Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly seat.
Mallanna's clarification came amid reports that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) approached him to contest on its ticket. However, BJP’s K Krishna Saagar Rao had denied any such efforts from the party. Addressing a meeting of his supporters in Medchal district, Mallanna announced that he will undertake a 6,000 km long padayatra. He also stated that he would set up Teenmaar Mallanna teams at state, district and constituency levels. He, however, said he will not form a political party.
In the recent elections to the Nalgonda-Warangal Khammam graduates’ constituency of the Legislative Council, Mallanna gave jitters to the TRS by contesting as an independent. He gave a tough fight to TRS candidate P Rajeshwar Reddy and finished runner-up with 1.49 lakh first and second preference votes.
A few days ago, a 21-year-old man committed suicide in Nalgonda as he was allegedly upset over Teenmar Mallanna's defeat in the MLC election. According to the police, the deceased had campaigned extensively for Mallanna before the election.
While Mallanna said he has no plans to form a political party or to contest the Nagarjuna Sagar bye-poll, he said he will be speaking against the ruling party. He is working to launch an aggressive social media campaign against the TRS, alleging that it failed to fulfil the aspirations of the people in the new state.