Jana Sena Party (JSP) president Pawan Kalyan on Thursday announced that he would contest from Pithapuram Assembly Constituency (AC) in Kakinada district. Speculation has of late been rife that he might jump into the fray in Bhimavaram or as an MP candidate from Kakinada, but he declared himself as the JSP-TDP-BJP candidate from Pithapuram Assembly Constistuency, which came as a nasty surprise for the TDP aspirant and former MLA S.V.S.N. Varma for obvious reasons.
Mr. Kalyan pointed out that he was under pressure to contest from Pithapuram in 2014, but the party itself opted out of the elections in order to support the TDP-BJP alliance, while saying that he would soon take a decision about the suggestions to compete for membership of Parliament. All this is against the backdrop of Mr. Kalyan’s personal defeat in both Bhimavaram and Gajuwaka, where he contested in the 2019 elections.
Addressing a meeting of the JSP’s social media wing activists on Thursday, Mr. Kalyan said it was a historic necessity to vote for the three-party alliance, and in the same vein exuded confidence that it would defeat the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), thereby bringing peace and stability to the State which he said suffered a lot due to bifurcation. He insisted that people should thwart the YSRCP’s evil designs to retain power, if they were to be in safe hands and the State had to progress. He said he came into politics for a long haul and was loath to being selfish.
Further, the JSP chief observed that distributing freebies by raising loans did not amount to welfare and people should be wary of the fact that the burden of repayment would ultimately fall on them. He alleged that the massive unproductive expenditure incurred by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government pushed the State economy to the brink of collapse.
The JSP-TDP-BJP if it came to power, would do much better than what the YSRCP could do in the last five years, he stated, while reiterating that the JSP had to settle for less number of seats than it should have claimed, in the larger interest of the State. “Even the seat meant for my brother Nagababu had to be sacrificed,” he observed, adding that he would duly recognise leaders who worked for the party’s growth but would not tolerate coverts and blackmailers.
