Pawan Kalyan's 360 degrees-turn baffles political observers, people alike

Why did Pawan Kalyan take a 360-degree turn and rekindle his lost love for the BJP? Pawan who always claims that there was method in his madness, in 2019 said, "People like me rallied behind Narendra Modi in 2014 believing that he would deliver strong leadership in the country but after he took charge as Prime Minister, he was creating fear psychosis in the country."

He charged the BJP of giving two rotten laddoos to the State and cheated the people by not implementing the assurance of Special Category Status that was made on the floor of Parliament, a demand that was raised and insisted by the then BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu.

He exhibited his maverick attitude by fighting the elections with Left and Bhahujan Samaj Party but failed to make any impact.

He thundered that he was not scared of any one and would question even Jagan Mohan Reddy if he came to power and committed mistakes.

But then, after the formation of the YSRCP government, Pawan has been confining himself to party office and press conferences but did not go into the people as intensely as an Opposition leader should have done.

His argument was that being a leader of a responsible party, he did not want to create law and order situation. Even when farmers of 29 villages were agitating for over 30 days, only once Pawan went there but came back with the announcement of alliance with the BJP.

His 360-degrees turn led to speculations that Pawan is not hitting the streets because he does not want to hurt the interests of his family members including his brother and mega star Chiranjeevi who reportedly has lands in Visakhapatnam. May be true or not, but then tongues will continue to wag unless Jana Sena comes clear over such allegations.

There is also another speculation making rounds in political circles. With no inflow of funds, no proper party structure and unable to take on the Chief Minister, Pawan tried to mend his fence with the BJP. Pawan said that there was communication gap between him and the BJP after 2014. The big question is what made him bridge the gap.

Was he enticed by the promise of the BJP endorsing him as Chief Minister candidate of the alliance in 2024? If that is true, merger of Jana Sena with the BJP is a certainty - may not be immediate, but it is inevitable, analysts aver. BJP leaders say that the BJP never makes any such commitment to anyone. If so, what was it that made Pawan to take a complete 'O' turn and sing praises of BJP is a million dollar question which either he or the saffron party has to clarify.

He is now on his second visit to Delhi to meet BJP president Nadda and some Union Ministers. The question is, can he put spokes into efforts of the State government to have three capitals?

What if the government maintains that Amaravati will be the capital but shifts all offices to Visakhapatnam and if governance takes place from them? Technically, the government would be right but in reality, the purpose of shifting of capital would have been served. How will Kamal Sena handle this issue needs to be seen.