Modi-Pawan meet may scuttle Naidu’s plans of united fight against Jagan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, by allowing a one-to-one meeting with Pawan Kalyan of Jana Sena Party on November 12 during his visit to Visakhapatnam, has sent out a message to his friend-turned-foe N Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP. The message is loud and clear: the BJP will not allow the actor to slip into Naidu’s fold at any cost.

The half-hour high-profile meeting has its political significance in the backdrop of strained relations between Jana Sena Party and BJP, though allies, and the Tollywood actor’s attempts to get close to Naidu.

Following an invite from the Prime Minister’s Office, Pawan arrived in a special flight from Hyderabad to Visakhapatnam to meet the PM. The actor told the media that he met Modi eight years after addressing joint rallies with him and Naidu in the 2014 elections.

Also read: For 2024 AP poll, Jagan looking to project father YSR as trump card

The Jana Sena leader skipped Modi’s rally during the PM’s last visit to Andhra’s Bhimavaram town in July. Modi addressed the rally after unveiling a statue of Alluri Sitarma Raju, a legendary freedom fighter who led the Rampa Rebellion against the British. However, Pawan’s elder brother and mega star Chiranjeevi stole the show at that rally as a state guest by receiving an exclusive audience from the PM on the dais, besides a photo op.

Naidu’s bid to woo Pawan went in vain?

Earlier, Pawan and Naidu, at a joint media conference, had expressed their intent to join hands against the “misrule” of the Jaganmohan Reddy government. The Naidu-Pawan meeting in a star hotel in Vijayawada had sent clear hints that Pawan was ready to break ties with the BJP and forge an alliance with Naidu’s party before the 2024 general elections if the saffron party failed to shed its pro-Jagan stance.

Subramanyam Dogiparty of Navyandhra Intellectual Forum and an analyst told The Federal: “Modi’s clever move of meeting Pawan has warranted Naidu to revisit his plans of scripting poll pacts with the actor.” The analyst said the actor is unlikely to get out of the BJP’s fold, if his meeting with Modi is any indication.

Also read: Jagan’s Mission 175 leaves Chandrababu struggling to save Kuppam turf

Galla Subramanyam of Kapu Nadu said Pawan, who hails from the dominant Kapu community, needs to be wary of the covert attempts of Jagan Reddy’s camp to split the community and act accordingly. Even as Pawan and Kapu Nadu have been trying to keep Kapus and the other sub-castes united, the ruling party is allegedly trying to split the Balijas, a sub-caste among Kapus. They constitute 20 per cent of the population in Rayalseema, Galla told The Federal.

Opposition unity unlikely

The division in the Opposition votes for want of unity worries Naidu the most. Though the rising anti-incumbency wave against Jagan’s rule provides a silver lining for Naidu, the presence of multiple players in the poll arena may upset his apple-cart, just as his hopes were dashed in 2009. The Pawan factor has become so crucial now that he can make or mar Naidu’s winning prospects, given the spike in the actor’s popularity in the recent past.

The actor has often been humiliated with memes on his personal life. The ruling Yuvajana Sramika Rytu Congress (YSRC) has branded him as a “package star” for allegedly receiving “packages” from Naidu for poll alliances.

Pawan felt the heat when he visited Visakhapatnam for Jana Vani—a programme he designed to lend his ears to public grievances across the state. Considering the Jana Vani as a parallel show for the government’s Visakha Gharjana rally in favour of three capitals, Jagan Reddy reportedly deployed a posse of armed policemen at the hotel where the actor had put up, immobilising him for the day.

The police also allegedly unleashed a reign of terror against his party’s protesting workers in Visakhapatnam. Pawan failed to receive his expected response from the BJP.

Also read: Why Naidu thinks it is a good idea to join forces with Pawan Kalyan

Against this backdrop, Pawan made a call for steps against a split in the Opposition votes to ensure the defeat of the Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh. This message seeks to explain Pawan’s plans of bringing the BJP and TDP under a single platform along with his Jana Sena as part of building Opposition unity against the “tyranny” of the Jagan government before the 2024 elections.

The “Power Star,” as Pawan is called by his fans, even sought a “road map” from the BJP brass, seeking to know its stand in his fight against the Jagan Reddy government.

Realising that the YSRC cannot be thrown out of power without taking TDP on board, Pawan has been sending overtures for a poll tie-up with it for some time. But, the BJP is not inclined to back such a move—one that may have far-reaching ramifications in state politics—for reasons best known to its top leadership.

BJP sees hope in Naidu’s downfall

Analysts say that is because the BJP wants to grow on the ruins of the TDP in the state. They also feel Naidu’s efforts of getting close to Pawan have got scuttled with the latter’s meeting with Modi. Close on the heels of that, CM Jaganmohan Reddy stated that his ties with Modi and the NDA government at the Centre was “above politics.”

Although the BJP and the Jana Sena stitched up a post-poll alliance after their severe drubbing in the 2019 state elections, it has failed to translate into action on the ground so far. Though the Jana Sena lobbied for the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat in the by-poll, the BJP didn’t budge and fielded its own candidate.

Also read: Why ‘kingmaker’ Chandrababu Naidu finds it tough to forge an alliance now

Later, in the Badvel by-election, the TDP and the Jana Sena were on the same page by not fielding candidates against the YSRC. It was following the practice of allowing an Assembly or Lok Sabha seat to go unopposed to a deceased lawmaker’s party in the by-elections. The BJP fielded its own candidate in Bavel, anyway.

Pawan charted his own course with militant actions against the Jagan Reddy government even as BJP remained passive. Jana Sena leaders attribute BJP’s unwillingness to take joint actions with the party to the Jagan-NDA bonhomie at the national level.

BJP’s hide-and-seek with Pawan will go on until the elections, said Right-leaning political analyst CL Venkata Rao. Modi needs Jagan for his numerical strength in the Rajya Sabha more than he needs Naidu and Pawan, Rao told The Federal.