‘I feel I won all 175 seats’: Pawan promises to work for welfare of entire Andhra

Amaravati: “No more dark days for Andhra Pradesh. I take the responsibility to protect every person in the state,” said Jana Sena Party (JSP) chief Pawan Kalyan who won with a thumping majority of 70, 279 votes from the Pithapuram Assembly Constituency.

If the just concluded Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh are equated to a cricket match, Pawan Kalyan can walk away with the ‘man of the match’ award for ensuring NDA’s stupendous show. Playing the pivotal role of avoiding vote erosion among the NDA partners, Pawan Kalyan almost played the key role of a kingmaker in the simultaneous 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

Speaking to the cadres after his win, Pawan Kalyan said, “From now on, I will work for the welfare of 5 crore people and be a part of every family. The people of the state have now given me a great responsibility and I feel like I have won all the 175 seats,” said Pawan Kalyan.

Pawan Kalyan stated that it is a historic day in Andhra Pradesh politics.

‘Not the time for revenge’

“This is not the time for revenge but to establish a strong pillar for the state, protect women, support the farmers. I’m taking the responsibility to issue the mega DSC notification for the youth. Everyone has to remember that I came into politics for the people and not for money,” said Pawan Kalyan who is called the ‘Man of the Masses.’

Despite humiliating personal defeats at Bhimavaram and Gajuwaka Assembly segments in the 2019 polls, Kalyan relentlessly strived to forge an alliance between his party, the N Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP and the BJP.

PK’s decision to enter an alliance paid off

As part of a seat-sharing deal among NDA partners, TDP contested from 144 Assembly and 17 Lok Sabha constituencies while BJP put out candidates in six Parliamentary and 10 Assembly seats. JSP contested in two Lok Sabha and 21 Assembly seats and the NDA is in the process of securing comfortable victories in both.

It was PK, the actor-politician, who first announced his party’s intention to have a post-poll alliance with the TDP from the prison where the former CM and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu was lodged following his arrest in the Skill Development Scam case in September last year. Kalyan’s announcement uplifted TDP morale and subsequent events drew BJP into the fold, bolstering the alliance.

The rise of Jana Sena and Pawan Kalyan

Founded in the run-up to the 2014 polls, JSP had only won an Assembly seat back then in the form of Rapaka Varaprasad from Razole. While the TDP-JSP-BJP alliance has won 101 Assembly seats, JSP won 16 seats and is leading in the remaining five seats.

Pawan Kalyan who first entered active politics in 2008 through his older brother Chiranjeevi’s erstwhile Praja Rajyam Party, finally tasted electoral victory.