Bhimavaram: It is Janasena but not Pawan Kalyan

The first list of candidates from the TDP-JSP alliance, which was announced last week, came as a big surprise to many not just because of the disproportionate sharing of seats between the two parties but also due to the absence of Pawan Kalyan’s name in it. Though TDP president Chandra Babu Naidu and his son Nara Lokesh retained their respective constituencies, there is no clarity on Pawan Kalyan’s seat till now. This led to a lot of confusion among the Janasena supporters.

As Pawan Kalyan made frequent visits to Bhimavaram several times in the last four years despite his humiliating defeat in 2019, many expected him to contest again from the same constituency. However, recent reports emerged that Pawan is eyeing to contest from Pithapuram of East Godavari district due to a bigger concentration of Kapu voters there. If Pawan Kalyan moves out of Bhimavaram, who will contest here from the TDP-JSP alliance is another question that has been baffling the political experts. Moreover, there is a lot of suspense on which party will get the chance to contest on Bhimavaram seat.

It is now heard that Pulaparthi Ramanajaneyulu, former TDP MLA who was confined to third place in the triangular fight in 2019, is going to join Janasena very soon and contest on behalf of the alliance in the upcoming elections. Pawan Kalyan feels that Bhimavaram ticket should be given to Janasena even if he doesn’t contest from there because he wants to respect the hard work done by his cadre to improve the vote share of his party in the last four years even after his defeat. He wants Ramanajaneyulu to contest on Janasena ticket because of the latter’s political experience. Moreover, Ramanajaneyulu also belongs to the same community.

So, it will be Janasena which is going to contest in Bhimavaram but not Pawan Kalyan. YSRCP’s sitting MLA Grandhi Srinivas is likely to be pitched again by YS Jagan. With Pawan Kalyan opting out, it would be interesting how the political landscape unfolds in Bhimavaram this time.