Pawan's Delhi tour creates ripples

Vijayawada: Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan's visit to New Delhi on Friday assumed political significance though he did not reveal the purpose of his tour. But a few days ago, he announced his plans to meet BJP senior leaders and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to explain the hardships faced by the people of the state due to the policies being pursued by the YSRCP government.

Pawan Kalyan flew to Hyderabad from Gannavaram Airport on Friday afternoon from where he went to Delhi. The Jana Sena leadership didn't make any announcement on the Delhi tour, which triggered a war of words between ruling party and TDP.

YSRCP MLA Ambati Rambabu said that Pawan was visiting New Delhi on the directions of TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu. He said that Pawan gets packages for criticising Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. However, TDP senior leader K Atchannaidu denied the allegation stating that their party has nothing to do with Pawan's visit.

Indeed, the rank and file of the BJP are maintaining strategic distance from Pawan Kalyan. The party had not attended his long march agitation on November 3 in Visakhapatnam on sand crisis though he invited the BJP leaders along with leaders of other political parties. A senior leader of the saffron party said that they do not have any information about Pawan's schedule or would he would meet anyone or not.

In fact, Pawan expressed his displeasure over stalling of development in the state, including Amaravati capital city and sand shortage with the BJP leaders during their internal discussions. If he meets anyone in the BJP, he may raise these points, the BJP leader said.

It may be recalled that the Jana Sena chief set tongues a wagging recently when he met BJP senior leader Ram Madhav during a programme in the US. Meanwhile, Pawan Kalyan while launching Dokka Seetamma food camps for the relief of construction workers' families who lost livelihood due to sand scarcity at Mangalagiri on Friday morning, said that they would not remain silent if the YSRCP government behaved as per its whims and fancies.

He questioned the state government would it have a right to kill people as it got 151 seats. The state government created hardships to people in the name of new policies, he lamented. Pawan said that the state government halted the construction of Amaravati capital construction works only to take revenge against TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu. He demanded Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to make an announcement whether the capital city would be constructed in Amaravati or Pulivendula.