VIJAYAWADA: Setting at rest all speculation as to from where Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan would contest, the actor-turned-politician has chosen two Assembly constituencies–Gajuwaka in Visakhapatnam district and Bhimavaram in West Godavari district–to test his luck.
Former CBI joint director VV Lakshminarayana, who joined the party recently, will fight his debut electoral battle from the Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency.
A decision to this effect was taken at the party’s general body meeting here on Tuesday. The party conducted a survey across the State before zeroing in on the constituencies for Pawan’s electoral debut.
Anantapur, Tirupati, Rajanagaram, Pithapuram, Bhimavaram, Gajuwaka, Pendurthi and Ichchapuram constituencies were shortlisted.
However, after much deliberation and weighing pros and cons, it was decided to field Pawan from both Bhimavaram and Gajuwaka. He will file his nomination papers for Gajuwaka on March 21 and Bhimavaram on March 22.
His brother Chiranjeevi, after floating the Praja Rajyam Party in 2009, had also contested his maiden elections from two Assembly constituencies–Tirupati and Palacole in West Godavari district.
But he lost from Palacole. Pawan’s choice was not surprising as speculation had been rife that he would contest from Gajuwaka and Bhimavaram.
The actor once said that he would contest from Anantapur district much before the poll schedule was announced.
The Jana Sena Party chief had extensively toured the twin Godavari districts and North Andhra recently.
He assured his support to the people fighting against Aqua Food Factory at Tunduru village in Bhimavaram mandal. His allies, the Left parties, have been agitating on behalf of the victims of the factory for long.
Further, Bhimavaram has a sizeable population of Kapus, a community to which the actor belongs. On the other hand, Gajuwaka reportedly has more than one lakh supporters of the Jana Sena, most of them young fans of Pawan and he is banking on them to come out with flying colours.
The Jana Sena has already sealed an alliance with Mayawati’s BSP — a non-entity in Andhra Pradesh — and the two Left parties - CPM and CPI. It is contesting 140 Assembly and 18 Lok Sabha constituencies, while the BSP has been given three MP and 21 Assembly seats. The Left parties have been given only four MP seats and 14 Assembly constituencies though they have been with Pawan for over a year now. Jana Sena has already announced candidates for 10 LS and 85 Assembly segments.
In Gajuwaka, Pawan will be pitted against incumbent MLA Palla Srinivas of the TDP and Tippala Nagireddy of the YSRC. In 2014, Nagireddy lost to Srinivas by a margin of 21,000 votes. In Bhimavaram, Jana Sena chief will contest against incumbent MLA Pulaparthi Ramanajenyulu of the TDP and Grandhi Srinivas of YSRC.
Lakshminarayana, who gained popularity for heading the probe against YSRC chief Jagan in the illegal assets case, will take on Sri Bharat of the TDP and MVV Satyanarayana of the YSRC for Visakhapatnam LS seat.