Pawan has many options

The Telugu heartland has another addition to the long list of matinee idols who joined the star wars. Having drifted away from his brother Chiranjeevi, who has been leading the fast dwindling lot of Congress loyalists, the maverick star, Pawan Kalyan, has gone all out to launch a blitzkrieg against the very party that his brother sought to sail with despite the bifurcation of the state against his wishes. The question now haunting his fans and faithful is ‘will he succeed where Chiranjeevi failed?’

The launch of Jana Sena, his fledgling political outfit, proved to be a success in grabbing the attention of the state. Overnight, there is a shift in focus from the debate on the dawn of Telangana state to that of the birth of the new party. His emotional outbursts, which in fact were unbecoming of a true politician, however had enough to provoke as well as to enthuse.

He had admitted to have come prepared to face the onslaught of political leaders he had chosen to target. His message was laced with enough warnings not only to the Congress but even for others too. But by all means he proved to be well prepared compared to his brother Chiranjeevi in planning before plunging into politics. While launching Praja Rajyam Party, Chiranjeevi had ruled out the option of either allying or joining with any other political party, including the BJP. He preferred to go only with the Left parties, if needed. The Left did not entertain him anyway.

But Pawan proved to be smart in keeping his options open. He had made it clear that he would sail with anyone, including TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, to achieve his avowed goal ‘Congress Hatao’. He sounded highly critical of the Congress leadership for its role in splitting the state. Except for a stray reference against one or two leaders like M Venkaiah Naidu, he preferred to go soft on the BJP despite the fact that its support was instrumental for the creation of Telangana.