Pawan Kalyan is a well-known name in the Telugu Film Industry. However in Politics, true to his name “Pawan”, he has been flowing with shifting stands on various issues, which has done little good to him and his party Janasena, rather Pawan has gained notoriety for his inconsistent ideologies. Ideologies form the foundation for any political action but Pawan’s major political actions stand on a weak ground.
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South Indian cinema industry’s film actors often bask in an image that is larger and more extravagant than life itself. The emergence of MG Ramachandran (MGR), Jayalalitha in Tamil Nadu, and Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR) in Andhra Pradesh, and the entry of screenplay writer and poet M Karunanidhi in Tamil politics speaks volumes for their mass appeal and the role they played in strengthening their parties and becoming regional satraps.
In recent times there has been the entry of Power Stars like Rajnikant, Kamal Hassan, Chiranjeevi, and Pawan Kalyan in Indian politics, everyone who has entered has had their stands, agenda, or the most basic thing i.e their ideology set right in the first place, as Rajnikant has hinted of his right-wing leanings, also his rapport with PM Modi is well known, Kamal Hassan’s tilt towards the left is clear, or at least, where he does not belong, is clear from his outright statement, “My color is definitely not saffron”.
What about Pawan Kalyan?
From 2014, anyone who has observed Pawan Kalyan can say that he has been inconsistent. In 2014, Pawan established Janasena, previously he worked with his brother Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam party.
Earlier he was much inclined towards communist ideology often seen quoting Che Guevara and other leftist leaders on the stage, he even told on some occasions, that he wanted to go underground and work for the Maoist but later there was a drastic change in his political ideology, where he had no hesitation in supporting the BJP-TDP alliance in Andhra Pradesh in 2014.
Then again, in the 2019 Andhra Pradesh Elections he contested by allying with the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India(Marxist), and Bahujan Samaj Party.
Now he has oscillated back to BJP in Telangana and TDP in Andhra Pradesh.
One thing ‘definite’ in Pawan Kalyan’s ‘indefinite’ political journey is that ’Pawan’ can fluidly switch alliances.
Why does the BJP count on Pawan Kalyan despite the Humiliating Defeat of Janasena in 2019?
It is a pertinent question now, as to why BJP is banking on Pawan Kalyan, despite a humiliating defeat suffered by the Jana Sena party in the 2019 Andhra Pradesh Elections, where the party was able to win only 1 seat in Razole, despite fighting on all the Assembly constituency seats.
The party suffered a huge setback, where it lost deposits in 121 out of the total 137 seats it contested, and adding to the party’s woes,’ Power Star’ Pawan Kalyan, lost from both Gajuwaka and Bhimavaram constituencies to candidates from YSR Congress Party.
The answer to the question lies in the mega star image of Pawan Kalyan, where even the BJP sees him merely as a “Crowd Puller”, which does not comes with the guarantee of increasing the vote share of the BJP.
The people in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have shown political maturity, where they might go for first day first show for Pawan Kalyan starer movies, but they are wise to see his political and movie characters in silos, the 2019 Andhra Elections were witness to the political understanding of the people from Telugu state.
Can Janasena open its account in Telangana?
This time Jansasena is contesting from 8 seats in the Telangana Assembly elections of 2023, since BJP doesn’t have a stronghold in these areas Janasena is contesting from there, moreover again one can see Pawan sharing the bonhomie at the center stage in a public meeting in Hyderabad with PM Modi.
BJP is thinking, that TDP is not fighting in Telangana so maybe they can get TDP’s vote share through Pawan Kalyan and the same time Congress is eyeing the vote share of TDP in Telangana through Kammas, where the contestation has now for ‘Number 2’ in Telangana in front of the political clout of BRS here.
Pawan Kalyan belongs to the Kapu community and the present 8 seats on which Jana Sena is contesting is in and around Khammam where Kammas are a dominant community. Collectively Kapus and Kammas account for around a quarter share of the population.
In the 2014 General Elections when Smriti Irani lost Amethi to Rahul Gandhi, she did the groundwork there to regain the Amethi seat from incumbent Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 General Elections. Contrary to this, Pawan Kalyan disappeared from Gajuwaka and Bhimavaram the day he lost there and can be seen mushrooming out in public only in and around election time.
It is now to see Janasena’s impact in the Telangana elections, if Pawan Kalyan fails to make an impact this time, one thing is for sure, it will affect them and TDP negatively in the Andhra Pradesh elections next year.
Is Pawan Kalyan a Caste leader?
In the entire political journey of Kalyan, he has been shifting stands, people allege him to be an opportunist due to his fickle mindedness, like his masala entertainment in movies, he merely serves as masala entertainment in politics, depriving both the fields i.e Films and Politics of strong character roles.
After 2019, he has been doing existential politics, seen just in and around the election time, he could have easily converted his fan base into a vote bank, by building a cadre base and organizational structure but now he has turned his attention to Kapu politics, trying to consolidate the caste votes, despite the Janasena Website mentioning ‘social consciousness without caste’ as one of the 7 ideals of the party.
The Election Commission of India says ‘caste your vote’ but Pawan goes for ‘vote your caste’, he knows now that he has disappointed the voters, and now the caste politics card is the last which he can play.
To sum up, Pawan Kalyan has been inconsistent everywhere from Politics to Films to Personal, when Janasena lost the 2019 elections the party workers made a furor against the EVM and Modi’s conspiracy to hack the electioneering system and now Pawan all of a sudden has unshakable belief in BJP. In all, Pawan Kalyan has not been a visionary who does not have a defined political motto and agenda to pursue independently and to build it’s own clout, rather now has switched to survival mode, where it is managing to exist somehow by shouldering BJP or TDP.
