VIJAYAWADA: Reiterating that the Jana Sena Party’s immediate objective is to free Andhra Pradesh from the clutches of the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government in the ensuing elections, JSP chief Pawan Kalyan has said the alliance with the TDP is a step in that direction.
Addressing an extensive meeting of the party in Mangalagiri on Saturday, the JSP chief in his nearly an hour-long speech clarified that the JSP is part and parcel of NDA.
“We are very much part of NDA and there are not two things about it. I am shortly leaving for New Delhi to explain to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda, the reason and circumstances behind my Rajamahendravaram declaration with regard to alliance,” Pawan Kalyan said.
Asserting that to dethrone the YSRC government in Andhra Pradesh, the alliance with the 40-year-old party is needed, Pawan Kalyan observed that both the JSP and BJP had got valuable time to stabilise and strengthen themselves in the State, but could not utilise the same properly. “Had it not been the case, the JSP along with the BJP, could have faced the oppressive regime, independently” he averred.
He told his partymen that as an individual Pawan Kalyan has people’s support, but as a party, Jana Sena has a long way to go. “What is needed is a strong mass of leaders that can rally people behind the party,” he said and cited the example of TRS's journey in politics.
Announcing a coordination committee headed by the party’s senior leader Nadendla Manohar to coordinate with the TDP, Pawan Kalyan asserted that his decision, which is taken in the larger interests of the people of the State, has the support of the people. “About 15-18 per cent of the people of the State, who can influence the outcome of any election, are very supportive of my decision,” he claimed.
Taking serious exception to police stopping him at the Andhra-Telangana border on September 9, the JSP chief recalled the words of former CM YS Rajasekhara Reddy in a Guntur meeting, where he said if the State was bifurcated, people of Andhra might need a visa or a passport. “Though it had not happened in Telangana, his son Jagan is making it happen in Andhra,” he quipped.
On officials’ willful support to the YSRC government, he said they should be ashamed of choosing caste over the Constitution. “People will behead this Jagan’s government like Veerabhadra did to Daksha, he said, asserting that there is no place for arrogance in a democracy.