Why Pawan Kalyan’s rath yatra is taking a Right turn in poll-bound Andhra

Amid talks of early elections in Andhra Pradesh, Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan has launched a high-profile political yatra with all fanfare. The yatra, which began from Kattipudi village in East Godavari district on June 14, will cover 11 constituencies in the East and West Godavari districts.

The special attraction of the yatra is a ‘rath’ called Varahi (means Goddess Shakti) that resembles an Army vehicle in Emerald green colour. The name and appearance are in sync with his recent avatar as a friend of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In tune with his ideological transformation, the 52-year-old actor-turned politician performed elaborate rituals to propitiate the gods to fulfil his wish to become chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.

A two-day yagya was performed with five fire kundams. Pawan performed cow puja and fed them bananas. The priests offered him a sacred bath. At the time of purnahuti, Pawan Kalyan wore white robes. The rituals ended with blessings by the priests. Later, Pawan offered prayers to Varahi by breaking four pumpkins. He offered arati and pranam to the vehicle. Finally, he walked a few steps before the Varahi as it rolled on before boarding it. It all looked like a leaked power-packed scene from an upcoming movie.

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Why this elaborate ritual? Even BJP’s tallest leader LK Advani, who launched his historic Rath yatra on September 20, 1990 from Somnath in Gujarat, didn’t perform such complicated rituals.

Why rituals?

A follower of Pawan Kalyan made a curious remark about it. “It’s meant to remove all the obstacles from his way to political power,” he told The Federal. Earlier, it had never been Pawan Kalyan’s practice to perform pujas before launching his tours or books.

“Political power has always remained elusive for Pawan even though he entered politics in 2008 with Prajarajyam party, launched by his brother Chiranjeevi. Later, he started his own party Janasena in 2014. But leave alone power, he could not even enter the Assembly. The pujas will clear all the obstacles,” his follower hoped.

The whisper among Jana Sena workers is that the BJP promised to back Pawan Kalyan as chief minister in case of a hung house or if the TDP performance is below par in the 2024 Assembly polls. The party workers firmly believe that a deal has been struck to this effect. For the BJP, which cannot dream of power alone in Andhra Pradesh, superstar Pawan Kalyan appears to be the right choice to latch on.

Addressing the first public meeting on Wednesday from atop Varahi at Kattipudi, Pawan said he would happily accept the responsibility of the chief minister’s post if it was offered. He said he had his own plan to become the chief minister after elections.

He assured the audience that as chief minister he would provide the state with a corruption-free government. He said nobody could stop his entry into the Assembly this time. He urged the people to give him a chance to rule the state. His followers believe that the BJP might conduct a major operation after the 2024 elections in favour of Pawan.

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Caste equations

Pawan, a Kapu by caste, was once seen as an angry young man hell-bent on cleaning the corrupt, caste-ridden, and religious politics. Though he claims he is above caste, Kapu caste has never left him. He says Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara is his icon. When his brother and megastar Chiranjeevi launched his party ‘Prajarajyam’ in August 2008, he was made in charge of the youth wing.

Backed by the numerically strong land-owning caste Kapu, it was thought that the brothers’ combined star power would catapult the party into political power a la NTR in 1983. In 2009, the party ended up with just 18 in a House of 275 seats. Even Chiranjeevi lost in one of the two constituencies he contested. Neither caste nor cinema glamour worked. Even the social justice concept Chiranjeevi espoused with Kapu-OBC-Dalits combination failed to inspire voters. Unable to run the party, in 2010 Chiranjeevi merged it with Congress in lieu of a berth in the UPA council of ministers.

But Pawan Kalyan was undeterred and wanted to march ahead solo with his own party. The idea of reforming politics drove him to search for a kind of new politics. He wanted to borrow ideals of communist revolutionaries like Tarimela Nagireddy as well. Having found no ‘ism’ suitable, he wanted to evolve his own ‘ism’ and wrote a book. But the book failed to give birth to any political philosophy.

Amid the continued confusion, he launched his Jana Sena Party in March 2014.  This confusion drove him into the lap of TDP and BJP against Congress, which bifurcated the state in 2014.

Reformed hero

With the fear of defeat for the fledgling party in 2014, he chose to campaign for TDP and BJP combine which formed the government in the remaining Andhra Pradesh after the creation of Telangana. In just two years, he got disillusioned with the Modi government.

The confusion led to the frustration that forced him to take an extreme anti-Modi stand, accusing prime minister Narendra Modi of creating a North-South divide by imposing Hindi. He misconstrued that his ‘South Talk’ would make him champion of the southern cause. He did not rule out even separation one day.

But the 2019 election, in which he contested without any alliance, was a disaster. He lost in the two seats he contested. His party won just one MLA who later defected to YSR Congress. At the Centre, Modi returned with an increased majority and in the state YSR Congress won with an absolute majority.

Vexed with his experiments and isms, he jettisoned his reforming zeal. He realized that PM Modi was the reality and the saffron wave alone could propel the party to power. BJP was more than happy to open the doors for the reformed hero. And finally, the BJP-Janasena alliance was announced in January 2020 with a goal ‘to emerge as a third alternative’ in Andhra Pradesh.

He supported every decision of Modi’s government, however controversial. This has led to a speculation that he would not hesitate to even merge the party with BJP at an opportune moment like his brother Chiranjeevi did in 2010. The only difference is his brother chose the Congress.