After his three-day whirlwind tour of coastal Andhra recently, power star and Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan has gone back into hiding and kept his fans and political analysts guessing as to what he would do next.Sources close to him say Pawan’s next tour will be in Telangana.He is now in the process of identifying a few issues like for example the unemployment problem, the unrest among Adivasis and land distribution for Dalits etc.
He will concentrate on setting up party office in Hyderabad and in all other important cities of the state.However, strictly speaking, Pawan does not have much stakes in Telangana, since he has been speaking mostly against the bifurcation of the combined Andhra Pradesh and issues concerning Andhra Pradesh like special category status etc.There have been no instances of Pawan taking up issues concerning Telangana.Yet, Pawan surprised everybody by saying his party would contest all the seats in Telangana as well. So what makes Pawan to take the decision?
Sources say it is indirectly to benefit Telangana Rashtra Samithi in the 2019 elections, as part of the secret understanding the latter had with the Telugu Desam Party.All said and done, Pawan has some support base in Telangana as well, especially among the youth in rural areas.He also has the backing of Kapu community in Hyderabad and surrounding areas. If he is able to divide the anti-establishment vote in Telangana, which would otherwise go to the Congress, it would largely benefit the TRS.
Even if Pawan can make a small percentage of difference in voting pattern, it would help the TRS!