BJP taking it easy with Pawan pact with Naidu?

[Anta Assamey]

The Bharatiya Janata Party appears to have taken it easy with Jana Sena Party chief and power star Pawan Kalyan’s announcement that he would fight the next assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh in alliance with the Telugu Desam party.

Within a couple of hours after Pawan made a statement, the BJP’s Andhra Pradesh unit issued a cautious statement saying for now, it has alliance with the Jana Sena Party. 

“Pawan Kalyan expressed view that there should be an alliance among the BJP, TDP and Jana Sena. The BJP leadership will take care of the issue of alliances. It will give clarity at an appropriate time on which party it should ally with,” the statement from the Andhra BJP media wing said.

Stating that the alliances would be decided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president J P Nadda, the BJP statement said for now, the party has an alliance with only Jana Sena Party.

Apparently, the state BJP leadership brought Pawan Kalyan’s statement to the notice of the national leaders, who reportedly advised the local leaders not to make any comment on the same.

“The national party has its own calculations. It cannot be blackmailed by Pawan Kalyan,” a party leader from Delhi said.

Meanwhile, the YSR Congress party made fun of Pawan Kalyan’s statement, saying the mask was finally out.

“All these days, we have been saying that Pawan Kalyan is an adopted son of Naidu. It has been proved now,” YSRC senior leader and former minister Vellampalli Srinivas said.

He said Pawan Kalyan had established the Jana Sena Party only for the sake of Chandrababu Naidu.

“It is shameful on the part of Kalyan to defend a criminal who was remanded to judicial custody,” the YSRCP leader said.

Srinivas alleged that Pawan Kalyan had no proper direction and plan and he was banking only on Naidu to sustain his political identity.

“On the other hand, Jagan is banking on the people. We have people’s support and we are ready to fight single-handedly,” he asserted.