Prajarajyam: Locomotive chugs in; seats waiting?

[kantharao]

Astride two regions, mega star Chiranjeevi is trying to play NTR by contesting from Tirupati and Palacole in his native West Godavari district. The resemblance may end there as 25 years after NTR’s avant gardism in politics, the fledgling star on the Andhra polity is no match to him on any count. 

The encouraging response to his initial tour notwithstanding, a few days in the open he had a sore throat and the indulgences towards the finer things in life must have taken their toll. His voice became very ordinary and lacked the needed punch nor could he arouse the passions of people who came to see him in large numbers. 

His image of a hero or the Robin Hood or a youngster in love running around bushes, steep valleys and high hills not to say the aping of Michel Jackson in his mega movies were confined only to the silver screen and in reality people could see him in just the thumbs up gesture. He did try to twirl his mustache and slap his thigh but it did not go well with the modesty of campaigning. 

The punch line, vote for change was well received initially but as the days progressed the fledgling party was punctured with moles, defectors and detractors. It soon turned out to be a Family (in the true sense of Mario Puzo) and running the affairs turned out to be on the lines of film production. 

The script, cast, technicians, locations and everything was kept secret and the media was allowed to keep guessing and the launch was in true style of a film awards function. People still believed him and his social justice slogan. 

Soon the cat was out of the bag. The director/producer of the film (read Allu Aravind) took control of the production unit while Chiranjeevi and his brother Pawan Kalyan played their parts according to the prepared script. 

Tickets were like distribution rights and as in film parlance, it went well in ceded and circar while in nizam it was average. Bickering started and the slogan of social justice was put to test. 

Born to an excise constable in Mogulthuru, Chiranjeevi waded through tough times but was eventually rewarded by his uncle Allu Ramalingiah. Film land split into two groups on caste lines while Chiranjeevi’s fame was on the ascendant.

So the party was allotted the desired election symbol and the locomotive chugged in and at every station it stopped, there more people getting down than those embarking. In Palacole, Chirajeevi is in fray along with 13 others. The locomotive must be having many bogies to accommodate the kapu population but he faces a popular doctor of the same caste popularly known as Dr Babji (Satyanarayana Murthy). He won the seat in 2004 by a slender margin against the Congress nominee. Congress changed the candidate and given ticket to Bangaru Usha Rani. BJP nominee K Musaliah too is a vote puller.  In Tirupati, he has the company of 17 others while the Congress fielded B Karunakar Reddy, TDP nominee is Sankara Reddy. Congress held the seat by a margin of over 39,000 votes in 2004 elections with Venkataramana polling over 91,000. This time both Congress and TDP changed the nominees whatever be the intention.

[dealraj]