Pawan Kalyan takes oath as Andhra deputy CM: How the movie star’s ‘aandhi’ swept the state

Andhra Pradesh has got a new government. Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu took as the chief minister on Wednesday (12 June) after his party’s alliance with the Jana Sena Party (JSP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a thumping victory in the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in the southern state.

JSP president Konidela Pawan Kalyan has reportedly taken oath as deputy chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. The popular actor played a big role in ousting YS Jagan Mohan Reddy of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) from power. He is also credited with stitching an alliance between the TDP and the BJP.

But who is he?

Meet ‘Power Star’ Pawan Kalyan

A popular Telugu actor, Pawan Kalyan is the younger brother of megastar K Chiranjeevi.

He made his acting debut in 1996 with the movie Akkada Ammayi Ikkada Abbayi and has since worked in several commercially successful films.

As per India Today, Kalyan has a black belt in karate and performs most stunts in his movies himself without a body double.

The 55-year-old, who is famously known as ‘Power Star’ for his action films, ventured into politics in 2008 with his brother Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party (PRP).

However, the party proved to be a failed experiment and it eventually merged with the Congress.

Kalyan floated his own political party JSP in 2014 but the party did not contest the polls that year. Instead, he extended support to the TDP-BJP alliance which came to power.

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The JSP fought the first Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra in 2019 on its own. The party faced humiliating defeat, with even Kalyan losing in both Assembly constituencies – Gajuwaka of Visakhapatnam and Bhimavaram of West Godavari – he contested. His party managed to clinch the sole Razole Assembly constituency (SC-reserved) but its MLA later defected to the YSR Congress party.

However, Kalyan did not lose heart from the electoral debacle. He raised the pitch against the ruling YSRCP and Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy on various issues.

Kalyan launched ‘Jana Vani’ in the latter half of 2022 in which he held small public meetings to listen to people’s grievances. As Businessline noted, he was the “only politician who worked to fight for public issues” despite losing the 2019 elections.

When the YSRCP government cracked down on one such meeting in Visakhapatnam and arrested JSP cadres, the incident helped bring TDP chief Naidu and Pawan Kalyan back together, reported Indian Express.

The JSP founder and president also kept reaching out to BJP leaders, including Amit Shah and JP Nadda, even when he did not receive a warm response.

However, Kalyan was finally successful in forging an alliance among TDP, JSP and BJP which announced a pre-poll alliance this March.

TDP-JSP-BJP’s landslide victory

Pawan Kalyan was firm in his stance when he said he would not let the anti-YSRCP vote split.

He toured the state extensively despite being criticised by Jagan Reddy and his YSRCP leaders over his personal life including his multiple marriages and his parallel career as a movie star.

This may have backfired though, as JSP leaders feel that their attacks earned Kalyan more “popularity and sympathy among the general public”, reported Businessline.

The JSP leader also faced opposition from his cadre for contesting only 21 Assembly seats and two Lok Sabha seats in Andhra as part of seat-sharing talks with TDP and the BJP. Kalyan waded through this, terming it a “sacrifice” to end the YSRCP’s rule.

And his gamble paid off.

The alliance got a resounding mandate in the state, with the TDP getting 135 of the 175 Assembly seats. Kalyan’s JSP won all 21 Assembly segments it contested. Their partner, the BJP, bagged eight seats. The YSRCP was reduced to 11 Assembly seats.

In the Lok Sabha polls, Naidu’s TDP secured 16 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra, while the YSRCP won just four. The BJP bagged three and the JSP the remaining two.

JSP’s 100 per cent strike rate was sweeter for Kalyan, especially after the 2019 poll failure. He stopped the split in anti-YSRCP votes through the alliance with the TDP and the BJP. Also, Kalyan, who comes from the Kapu community, was able to “transcend his caste identity” by garnering support from “one and all”, according to the Businessline report.

“The electoral infrastructure of TDP in the form of a strong cadre was added to the popularity of Pawan Kalyan in the final battle,” the report added.

While the TDP has secured a majority on its own, Kalyan’s party is expected to have a big role in the new government and its policies, noted Indian Express.

#WATCH | "Yeh Pawan Nahi Aandhi Hai," #PMModi on Pawan Kalyan's win in Andhra Pradesh's Pithapuram#NDAMeet #Parliament #AndhraPradesh #SouthIndia #NDA #BJP #PawanKalyan pic.twitter.com/pp242lf0TD

— News18 (@CNNnews18) June 7, 2024

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi remarked for the actor-politician last week, “Yeh Pawan nahi hai, aandhi hai (He is not a breeze but a storm).” And this “aandhi” seems ready to leave a mark in Andhra politics.

With inputs from agencies