Why Pawan Kalyan may gain the most from Tirupati laddu row

In the cacophony of voices emerging in the wake of the Tirupati laddu controversy, one that has stood out is a statement made by Pawan Kalyan, Jana Sena Party chief and Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

While expressing anguish at the alleged desecration of the laddu prasadam with animal fats, Pawan has advocated the setting up of a “Sanatana Dharma Rakshana Board” at the national level to look into all the issues related to temples in the entire country.

A strong demand

Whether the 53-year-old former movie star has made the demand with conviction or whether it is just a political strategy to make his party look more attractive to those who may want to leave the YSR Congress Party is a different question altogether.

But at a time when even powerful right-wing organizations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad did not go beyond demanding the arrest of the people responsible for the adulteration of the laddu, Pawan’s demand echoes the sentiments of Dr Subramanian Swamy.

In 2018, the former BJP MP filed a petition in the Andhra Pradesh High Court, seeking the liberation of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) from the clutches of the government.

End of the road for Jagan?

Coming to the YSRCP, the Tirumala laddu controversy is expected to expedite its disintegration, and Pawan is reportedly hoping to reap the chunk of the harvest of the crisis.

The controversy can potentially make YSRCP supremo YS Jaganmohan Reddy an untouchable in Andhra politics. His sister and state Congress chief YS Sharmila has declared that it is the end of the road for Jagan, and the party can never recover from the jolt.

It was during Jagan’s rule that the ghee used for the Tirupati laddu prasadam was procured from a Tamil Nadu-based company.

Pawan’s journey towards BJP

What makes things even more complicated is that Jagan is Christian. Therefore, a flare-up of Hindu sentiments can decimate Jagan’s party, and all the MLAs, MPs, and senior leaders will run for cover.

Already, Kapu leaders from YSRCP have met Pawan, who, of late, is being seen as the repository of Kapu caste power. And the BJP, which has not been able to strike roots in the state despite being led by leaders such as M Venkaiah Naidu and D Purandeswari, is only too happy to project Pawan’s Jana Sena as its Andhra version.

All his striking actions, such as smearing tilak on the forehead, wearing necklaces of beads and other religious symbols, dressing up in saffron attire, observing Chaturmasya, and naming his campaign chariot (rath) as Varahi indicate the long and fruitful distance Pawan has travelled towards the BJP since 2007.

Pawan’s initial wanderings

Pawan, the son of a police constable, emerged in public life outside the silver screen by establishing an organization called the Common Man Protection Force with the idealism of the Cuban revolutionary Che Guevera in 2007.

But his political journey from 2007 to 2019 was a disappointment. In 2008, he joined Praja Rajyam, a political party launched by his actor brother Chiranjeevi, as the chief of its youth wing.

Since social justice was the flavour of the season, Chiranjeevi was persuaded by activists to adopt social justice as its agenda. Even though he declared that Praja Rajyam embodied the ideals of Periyar, Phule, Ambedkar, and Mother Teresa, it could not escape from being branded as a Kapu party.

Pawan’s reemergence with Jana Sena

The party, even though it won 18 seats in the 2009 elections, was merged with the Congress in 2010. Disappointed, Pawan fell silent for some time. But before the 2014 elections and the division of the state, he reemerged with Jana Sena Party, with the theatrics of an angry young man.

Pawan wanted to develop his own “ism” and wrote a couple of books that failed to impress anyone. Soon, he stopped talking about them.

Since the party was still a fledgling, the Jana Sena did not contest the 2014 election, but worked for the success of the TDP-BJP alliance and won.

Pawan’s Leftist days

But later, under the influence of communists, he started opposing Narendra Modi’s politics, especially his perceived anti-South politics. He declared that Modi was anti-South India and advocated revolt from the South.

CPI(ML) leader Tarimela Nagi Reddy was his inspiration. Pawan used to quote extensively from his magnum opus India Mortgaged.

Therefore, Pawan could not sail with Chandrababu Naidu either. He aligned with the Left parties and stood by farmers displaced by the planned capital city of Amaravati. He also fought for the supply of potable water for the Uddanam region of north Andhra, where kidney ailments were rampant.

By 2019, Pawan distanced himself from both Modi and Chandrababu Naidu. He fought the Assembly election with the Left parties, and the Jana Sena won only one seat, but the lone MLA later defected to the YSRCP.

Turning Right

The emergence of Modi in the national scene and the dismal performance of Jana Sena forced him to drop the pretence of the revolutionary angry young man.

At the same time, he realized the potential of turning Right in politics. The BJP, which was finding it difficult to find a toehold in Andhra, found just the right person to bank on in Pawan.

Prime Minister Modi welcomed him into the NDA with open arms. This further paved the way for the Modi-Naidu reunion, which resulted in the formation of the NDA before 2024 elections.

Mutually beneficial ties

The TDP-JSP-BJP alliance won a landslide victory in the 2024 elections by bagging 164 out of 175 seats. The Jana Sena won all the 21 seats it contested.

This unexpected windfall reinforced Pawan’s faith in saffron politics. His party men believe that the Hindutva talk would widen the base of Jana Sena, which is essentially a Kapu party.

The BJP has a lot to gain from Pawan’s Hindutva rhetoric and the saffron party’s hand behind his demand for a Sanatana Dharma Rakshana Board cannot be ruled out, said Gopani Chandraiah, a political scientist from GB Pant Social Science Institute of Allahabad University.

BJP’s regional version?

“Kammas have been a political community for over a century. They have a political party and own many media houses. They achieved political power through caste cohesion. The BJP cannot possibly target the Kammas’ TDP to gain inroads into Andhra. Kammas would fight tooth and nail to retain power,” Chandraiah told The Federal.

“On the other hand, Kapus have no political legacy,” he pointed out. “Though they crave political power, they are ideologically wobbly. They can easily fall prey to the BJP’s saffron seduction. It is evident in Pawan’s transformation from the extreme Left to the extreme Right. Though the chances of Jana Sena merging with the BJP are remote, it is expected to act as the latter’s regional version in Andhra to the detriment of TDP in the long run,” Chandraiah summed up.