As the BJP has no leader of substance in Andhra, it is possible that Modi is trying to groom Chiranjeevi to lead the party in the state.
Published Jan 16, 2025 | 12:22 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 16, 2025 | 12:22 PM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chiranjeevi at the residence of G Kishan Reddy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi knows very well how to utilise “star power” for his party. He is aware that in Andhra Pradesh the BJP does not have an identity of its own and that it is piggybacking on the popularity wave of TDP and Jana Sena.
No one understands the fact that the party needs star power in the state better than Modi.
On Sankranti day, 13 January, Narendra Modi took part in traditional celebrations at Union Coal Minister G Kishan Reddy’s residence in Delhi. If BJP leaders turn up for such occasions, it is no news.
However, the unannounced presence of megastar Chiranjeevi came as a surprise to many.
Chiranjeevi was in the Congress in the long-forgotten past, holding the portfolio of Tourism at the Union government, but he is not in the grand old party anymore.
After his brief stint with Congress, he bid goodbye to politics and has confined himself to lording over his paradise — the tinsel world.
At Kishan Reddy’s residence, Chiranjeevi was all humility in the presence of the prime minister. He was with the prime minister all the time, he went around, lighting “bhogi manta” (Sankranti bonfire), feeding a cow with bananas and watching cultural programmes.
He was sitting next to Narendra Modi, a rare honour for an apolitical person.
Most of the time, Narendra Modi was seen chatting up with Chiranjeevi, who in all humility bent forward paying 100 percent attention to what the BJP strongman was saying, like a boy on his first day in LKG.
The camaraderie and the banter that bloomed between the megastar and the prime minister set the speculation mill aflame.
As the BJP has no leader of substance in Andhra, it is possible that Modi was trying to groom Chiranjeevi to lead the party in the state. Chiranjeevi is a Kapu, a numerically strong community in the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh.
Since his brother Pawan Kayan leads a party that is very closely associated with the BJP, the “double-engine” dispensation might spur the lotus to bloom in all its resplendent glory in Andhra Pradesh, similar to some north Indian states.
Even though it is too early to say, it is tempting to visualise tectonic shifts in Andhra Pradesh by the time the next elections arrive, going by the ever-changing patterns in the political kaleidoscope.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
