How can Pawan Kalyan unilaterally ask for Andhra Pradesh CM post, questions Kapu community leader

A Kapu community leader and former minister on Tuesday questioned Jana Sena party founder Pawan Kalyan for unilaterally asking for the Andhra Pradesh chief minister's post when the latter claims to contest the 2024 Assembly elections in a coalition with the TDP and the BJP.

Kapu community leader Mudragada Padmanabham raised a volley of questions addressed to the actor-politician, in a stinging letter, expressing his inability to comprehend the rationale behind Kalyan asking the masses to make him the CM.

Kapus are a dominant land-owning caste in Andhra Pradesh.

"You should ask to be made the chief minister while contesting 175 seats (total strength in AP Assembly) but not while contesting in a coalition. It is ridiculous to think of becoming the chief minister while contesting in a coalition," noted Padmanabham, who was a former MP and MLA.

Further, he admonished the actor that one should be loved by all after establishing a political party and questioned if it is was justifiable to behave like a "street rowdy".

Attempting to give sage advice to Kalyan, Padmanabham highlighted that in politics one has to go to the common people and beg for votes while that is not the case in the event of leading a movement.

Wondering on what kind of advice was being given to the actor by his advisers, the Kapu leader observed that the language employed by Kalyan in his speeches is uncalled for as a party supremo.

Listing out a plethora of derogatory terms Kalyan uses against his opponents, the former minister pointed out that this virulence will only bring damage and nothing significant for Jana Sena.

Moreover, Padmanabham raised several issues in his letter, touching upon Kalyan allegedly targeting Kakinada MLA Dwarampudi Chandrasekhar Reddy, reservation for Kapu community, railway zone, saving Vizag Steel Plant and others.

Instead of wasting his time attacking the Kakinada MLA, Padmanabham advised Kalyan to battle for the special category status and other pressing needs of the state.

Kalyan founded Jana Sena in March, 2014 and went on to support TDP without contesting polls that year. In 2019, he declared himself as a chief ministerial candidate but met with a debacle in the elections, losing both the seats he had stood in while the lone party MLA, Rapaka Varaprasad, is now supporting YSRCP.