Actor-politician and Jana Sena party chief Pawan Kalyan on Friday met with leaders of the CPI and CPM and held seat sharing talks for the upcoming Legislative Assembly and Lok Sasbha elections in the state.
The leaders met at a resort in Visakhapatnam for a round able conference organised by the Jana Sena party.
Stating that the three parties had similar ideologies, Pawan in a press release said that he “felt the need for taking up people’s movements to the level of politics.”
Addressing reporters after the conference, the leaders said that the event discussed at length, issues of environmental pollution, mining policy, implementation of Land Acquisition Act 2013 and how to fight the 2019 elections together in the state.
Pawan also clarified that further talks would be held in February to finalise the seat sharing deal that the three parties would strike.
This is in contrast with a statement made by Pawan Kalyan, who had earlier announced that his party would contest in all 175 constituencies in Andhra Pradesh in 2019.
The party has already been allotted its poll symbol—a glass tumbler – by the Election Commission. 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. Instead, he 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.
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. Former Andhra Minister and TDP MLA Ravela Kishore Babu also later joined hands with Pawan. Akula Satyanarayana, a BJP MLA, was the latest entrant.
In the 2019 Assembly Elections, Pawan Kalyan will be up against the ruling TDP and YSRCP.