Pawan Kalyan’s Political Debut and Journey

Image Source: newindianexpress.com

Pawan Kalyan, an actor turned politician, started his political career in 2008 and came a long way from then. Pawan Kalyan was an actor before he became a politician and had a very successful career. He was called the ‘Power Star’ by his fans.

He started his political career 12 years ago as the president of Yuvarajyam, a wing under the party Praja Rajyam Party which was started by his elder brother Chiranjeevi an actor as well.

While being the president of the youth wing in the PRP he neither participated in the elections nor had any constitutional post. But when his brother Chiranjeevi wanted to merge the party with the Indian National Congress, Pawan Kalyan took a break from the politics.

He silently showed his dissatisfaction by starting a new political party known as Jana Sena Party. He started the party in 2014 and announced the formation of the party on 14th march in two different meetings conducted in HITEC city and Vizag. The party was accepted by the Election Commission in December.

He also wrote a book named Ism which contains the ideologies of the Jana Sena Party. 

BJP Supporter

During the 2014 elections, he fiercely supported BJP and Telugu Desam Party(TDP). He campaigned along with the Prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, and the Chief Minister candidate N.Chandrababu Naidu who later became the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister respectively.

He opposed Congress with the slogan ‘Congress Hatao Desh Bachao’. He started protesting for the Uddanam kidney disease crisis. He lead a protest march for expressing condolences to the farmers who committed suicide or migrated from the drought-affected regions. 

He had the motto of ‘fight for the rights of each and every common person.’

After the elections, he said that he became disillusioned and left the NDP alliance and started protesting against them claiming that they failed to address the unemployment, special category status, and many other issues. 

He protested against the central government’s privatization of DCI and opposed the TDP’s decision on land pooling.

But the people viewed this as an ideological somersault and questioned his integrity. In 2016 he announce his participation in the 2019 election and said that his party will compete in all 175 assembly seats. 

From 2018 he started visiting many places in both the Telugu states and met the weaker stratum and said that his party will not focus on any caste or religion and promoted social equality.

He formed an alliance with the leftist parties and BSP(Bahujan Samaj Party) for the 2019 general elections. He competed in the Bhimavaram and Gajuwaka seats and failed to win either of the ones. 

Shocking Results

His party managed to get 7% of the votes in Andhra Pradesh approximately and won only one seat out of 175 assembly seats. 

His political debut was considered a formidable challenge for the opponents and the media thought that he will be the kingmaker in both the Telugu states. But his party winning only one assembly seat came as a shock to everybody.

After the results, he himself went into silent mode and started coming to the party office only a few weeks later. His party leaders and cadre left the Jana Sena one by one and joined BJP. 

Everybody said he made the same mistake as his brother Chiranjeevi and tried to enter politics when there was no space in the Telugu politics.

He then again joined the BJP alliance this January and lead a rally for justice over the Sugaali Preethi rape incident. When Pawan Kalyan was an actor he was one of the highest-paid actors and there is a talk that he will be returning to the film industry while staying in politics. 

But there was no information from the actor’s side.


Written by - Jaime A.

Edited by - Rudransh Khurana