Janasena-BJP merger: Pawan walking in Chiranjeevi's footsteps?

When Power Star Pawan Kalyan made his fiery debut speech in Visakhapatnam raising his voice against the Congress party and opposing his brother Chiranjeevi's decision to merge the Praja Rajyam Party, there was a thunderous round of applause from his fans. Not just that, his speech became a hot topic of discussion in political circles. Politicians who till then saw him as just a matinee idol sat up and took notice of his fine oratory skills. In his speech, Pawan had lambasted the then Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S RajaSekhar Reddy and said that he was floating a new political outfit so he could question the government's failure to act on certain things. He vowed to stand up for the rights of people. At that point, he even went against BJP. Now, he has done a complete U-turn on what he said.

The Jana Sena chief who had till now stayed away from the BJP has suddenly turned pally with the saffron party and is all praises for Modi schemes.

Let's do a little flashback to the time when Telugu megastar Chiranjeevi decided to take the political plunge.

The PRP chief had said that he wanted to work to get justice for people. Chandrababu, on the other hand, in his usual trademark style kept harping on his 40-year industry experience. Then Pawan said that he was a Marxist. It was BSP chief Mayawati's turn to come here to reiterate the fact that she stood for the upliftment of Dalits in the society. Now, Pawan Kalyan has changed his tune and says that he believes in the ideologies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.

In a surprise move, Pawan Kalyan announced that his Jana Sena and the BJP had decided to fight all the upcoming polls together. However, both the parties emphasised that they would keep all other parties, including the Telugu Desam at bay.

While inside sources say that there was a proposal to merge the two parties, the BJP had decided against it in the interest of political gains an alliance would bring to both parties.

What zapped everybody was BJP state president Kanna Lakshminarayana saying that Pawan had agreed to unconditionally work with his party and exuded confidence that they would fight the YSRCP in the 2024 elections and also unseat YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Sunil Deodhar, the BJP state affairs in-charge elaborated on the reasons to alienate Chandrababu's yellow party away saying the party had ruined the prospects of the state with its corrupt activities. The Jana Sena chief said that people of Andhra Pradesh had now realised the need for an alternative to Jagan's YSRCP and Babu's TDP which had failed miserably in providing good governance.

Sunil Deodhar even declared the BJP-JSP alliance 'historic'. He vowed to put an end to dynasty politics, political casteism and corruption in Andhra Pradesh with this tie-up.

Pawan's relationship with BJP goes way back to 2014 elections when he had campaigned for them extensively while praising Modi to the skies. Then in 2019, he fought the elections with BSP. Now, he's back with BJP saying he will form the next government. He says that he decided to work with the saffron party to ensure a good future for AP.

This brings us back to the question is Pawan walking in the footsteps of his brother Chiranjeevi? We all know how and under what circumstances the PRP chief merged his party with the Congress. This despite the fact that PRP had absolutely no presence or ground in Andhra Pradesh. Yet Congress felt threatened. But of course, Chiranjeevi's sacrifice was not without any results. He did get his due. He bartered his party and ideologies for a union minister's post which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Now, has Pawan too realised that he can't go it alone with JSP in the upcoming elections if he wants power? Pawan did tell that he was here for serving people even though several other parties accused him of being a part-time politician as he still was in touch with his movie colleagues. Now with him shifting base to AP, people know that Pawan is serious about making a career in politics. But it is a fact that he can't make it to the top on his own and needs to piggyback on some powerful party in the state. With him differing on ideologies of Jagan, there's no way for him to have joined hands with the YSRCP. Finally, he has realised that BJP is the way to go. Not that BJP has any presence in any of the Telugu states.

But there's a hitch. It's going against one's ideologies for the sake of power. Soon after the JSP chief talked about joining hands with the BJP, YSRCP chief spokesperson Ambati Rambabu rightly said that Pawan was a leader sans consistency. He also recalled one of the statements made by the JSP chief about Modi giving stale laddoos to Andhra Pradesh and wondered what happened to Pawan now.

If one were to remember the passionate leader Pawan the day he floated his party who had even invoked Che Guevera, it's hard to digest that even he is going after power. To serve people is one thing and to go after power is another. A few theories doing the rounds also suggest that it is at the behest of his brother Chiranjeevi that Pawan agreed to go the BJP way. Remember, a few days ago Chiru met YS Jagan? Apparently he sought lands in Vizag (which is said to be one of the capitals of the residuary state) to set up a film studio. Now, most of the Kammas have lands in Amaravati. If YSRCP's allegations are anything to go by, then they bought huge chunks of lands in the region at throwaway prices before it was declared a capital city. Now, they are at loss. Speculation is rife that Chiranjeevi and Pawan to have lands there. On the other hand, Chandrababu after losing miserably in the bygone elections was wary of the BJP because he knows anyone who rubs them the wrong way cannot survive.

Remember how much he criticised the saffron party after he broke ties with them? And BJP is not a party to take things lying down. So very cleverly he sent all the corrupt politicians in the party to BJP to make sure he was safe. Sujana Chowdary was the first to switch over from TDP to BJP. One cannot forget the fact that Sujana was a staunch follower of Chandrababu. He is also known as the Benami of Babu. So obviously the move was to ensure that Sujana was safe and so were Babu's properties. As BJP wanted more people with power from the state, they also welcomed and now they can't even put cases against their own partymen. Now, going by this logic, the theory now doing the rounds did Pawan join hands with the BJP to avoid cases? What is he scared of that he deserted TDP and going all out to support the saffron party?

Political observers are of the view that both Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan are accidental politicians who just want a taste of power so they could disappear after doing a blink and miss appearance like the special cameos they do in movies.