Actor-politician Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena Party which will be contesting in the 2019 election, has been allotted its poll symbol—a glass tumbler – by the Election Commission. The leader took to Twitter on Sunday to make the announcement.
Though the actor-politician refrained from contesting in the Telangana Assembly Election, his party is expected to contest in all the 175 constituencies in Andhra Pradesh. In September, Pawan Kalyan announced his first MLA candidate, Pitani Balakrishna from Mummadivaram Assembly constituency in East Godavari. The actor gave him a B-form and declared him as the party candidate for the 2019 elections.
Pawan Kalyan floated Jana Sena Party in March 2014. However, he did not contest in the state election that year, stating that he did not have grass root level workers. He, however, campaigned for the TDP-BJP alliance.
The alliance was short-lived after the BJP-led Centre denied granting Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh. Since then, Pawan Kalyan has been hitting out at both the Centre and TDP in the state for failing to fulfill their promises.
My wholehearted thanks to ‘Election commission’ for giving us ‘Glass Tumbler’ as our Party symbol. Personally for me that ‘Glass Tumbler’ has many memories from my childhood and it’s common man’ s identity in our country. pic.twitter.com/hoIZ5oF4nl
— Pawan Kalyan (@PawanKalyan) December 23, 2018
After the Centre denied Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh, Pawan Kalyan allied with the Left parties--CPI and CPI (M) and also with the Lok Satta to form a Joint Fact Finding Committee to fight against the 'injustice' meted out to the state. The Committee was later disbanded due to differences between the leaders.
Pawan Kalyan later made it clear that his party will contest the Assembly Elections alone.
For a long time, Pawan Kalyan was the lone face of the party, without a second rung of leaders. However, Congress leader and former AP speaker Nadendla Manohar recently joined the party to fill the visible void. The duo recently visited the United States and met various politicians.
Pawan Kalyan is not new to politics. He had campaigned for his brother Mega Star Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam Party. However, this was a political misadventure, as the party performed poorly in the 2009 Assembly Elections. The party later merged with the Congress, and Chiranjeevi became the Tourism Minister during UPA-II.
In the 2019 Assembly Elections, Pawan Kalyan will be up against the ruling TDP led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party.