Pawan Kalyan to contest from 2 constituencies for Andhra Pradesh election

Andhra Pradesh: The upcoming Andhra Pradesh elections will see actor-politician and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan contest from two constituencies. One from Bhimavaram in West Godavari and the other from Gajuwaka constituency in Visakhapatnam.

This is the first time that Jana Sena will be making its electoral debut and the party has so far announced candidates for 77 Assembly seats.

Jana Sena has joined hands with the Left and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party in the state. The party has allotted 21 Assembly seats and three Lok Sabha seats to the BSP.

However, seat sharing talks are still on with the Left parties.

Pawan Kalyan, 47, founded the Jana Sena in 2014 ahead of the general elections. He had extended his support to the TDP-BJP alliance and also campaigned alongside TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and then Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The party chose not to contest elections that year.

His political activity started when he began touring Andhra Pradesh from September last year, meeting with farmers, women, unemployed youth, academics, and professionals. In January 2018, he had toured Telangana.

On Sunday, the party received a boost with former IPS officer VV Lakshminarayana joining Jana Sena party. 53-year-old Lakshminarayana had arrested YSRCP’s YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and Gali Janardhana Reddy in connection with a disproportionate assets case. Lakshminarayana is likely to contest in the April 11 elections in Andhra Pradesh.

Pawan Kalyan’s elder brother, Chiranjeevi, who founded the Praja Rajyam Party before merging it with the Congress, had also contested from two places — Palacole and Tirupati — in 2009. He had, however, lost Palacole and won in Tirupati.

Elections to the 175-member Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh are scheduled for April 11. Polling for all 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana will also be held on the same day.

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