Naidu fails to get around Pawan HYDERABAD: Despite 'handshakes' and 'warm hugs' in public by their respective party chiefs to send signals to their cadres that they are working in tandem, fissures in the TDP-BJP-Jana Sena combine exist.
A day after he had been given the cold shoulder by Jana Sena founder and film actor Pawan Kalyan at a Modi meeting in Hyderabad, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu called on Kalyan at the latter's guest house here on Wednesday.
According to sources, during the 45-minute meeting, Naidu requested Pawan to campaign for TDP candidates in Telangana and Seemandhra, and the actor reluctantly agreed to the request. Later, the two addressed mediapersons together.
Naidu admitted that he had requested Pawan to campaign for the BJP-TDP combine in Telangana and Seemandhra. 'Pawan told me that he would take a decision soon,' Naidu said.
'The BJP, TDP and Jana Sena have to work in tandem to make Modi the next prime minister. My line of thought, Modi's thinking and Pawan's thought process are the same,' he claimed.
Though he praised the TDP chief for announcing that he would make a BC leader the chief minister of Telangana, Pawan was non-committal on undertaking poll campaign along with the TDP leadership.
'I will decide on it as the situation develops,' was his terse reply when journalists wanted to know whether he would campaign for the TDP along with Naidu.
Pawan said his party stayed out of contests only to ensure that the anti-Congress vote was not split. On the controversy over fielding film producer Potluri Vara Prasad for Vijayawada LS seat, he said he had not asked Prasad to contest from Vijayawada as he did not want the electoral chances of the TDP-BJP candidate there affected.
Taking a dig at TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, he said, 'The TRS wants to establish family rule in T-state. Its leadership has insulted D Sravan Kumar, forcing him to quit the party and join the Congress. Shravan is a good friend of mine.'
Pawan said that though he had high regard for Lok Satta chief Jayaprakash Narayan, he would support TDP's Malla Reddy in the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency as per alliance dharma
News Posted: 24 April, 2014
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