MAA Election — Manchu Vishnu-Prakash Raj — Vizag AP Capital link?
MAA Election was concluded yesterday and Manchu Vishnu defeated Prakash Raj with a margin of 107 votes. Vishnu got 381 votes and Prakash Raj 274!
While it is not surprising to see Vishnu contesting this election as he belongs to locally influential Manchu family but what surprised many is how come Prakash Raj who is a multi-lingual actor suddenly showed interest in MAA election!
Pawan Kalyan who usually keeps him away from Tollywood affairs in general, openly supported Prakash Raj! This needs deeper analysis which will lead us to believe on how AP Capital Vizag issue played a major part in MAA Election!
On Dec 17th 2019, AP CM YS Jagan declared in AP assembly that Vizag can be Executive capital of Andhra Pradesh while floating his 3 capital idea. This didn’t go well with Chandrababu Naidu and team who have heavily invested in Amaravati. They needed someone to lobby with BJP in Central govt to stop Vizag from becoming the capital of AP, as PM Modi has stopped entertaining Chandrababu Naidu (CBN) after a bitterly contested General election in 2019.
CBN selected his trusted aide Pawan Kalyan to do the lobbying for him. Pawan Kalyan who until then was vehemently opposing BJP suddenly showed up in Delhi and by Jan 2021, he officially declared that his party JanaSena is going into alliance with BJP with no pre-conditions whatsoever. Usually alliances are made just before elections. But strangely, Pawan Kalyan went and offered himself to BJP, 6 months after 2019 election!!
After that Pawan Kalyan along with AP State BJP President Kanna Lakshminarayana, under the direction of Eenadu Ramoji Rao started a smear campaign on Vizag that it is an unsafe city to be the capital of AP. Eenadu too ran several stories on why Vizag should not be the capital of AP. Pawan Kalyan lost election in Gajuwaka and he has grievance and anger against Vizag.
In spite of humongous efforts by Ramoji Rao, CBN, Pawan Kalyan and Kanna Lakshminarayana, BJP did not bow to them and instead changed the AP State in charge and appointed Somu Verraju in Jul 2020. This is within 6 months of Pawan Kalyan joining BJP alliance in Jan 2020. This was a major shock to CBN and team as Somu Veeraju is a know bitter critic of Chandra Babu Naidu.
Pawan Kalyan lost hope in Jul 2020 that BJP will not support him in stopping Vizag as AP Capital. Since then he was looking to come out of alliance and go back to his favorite party which is TDP.
The Covid lockdown and 2nd wave in 2021 kept everyone busy until Summer of 2021. Just when things are getting to normalcy from lockdown, Pawan Kalyan who was waiting to get out of BJP alliance found an opportunity in MAA election. He called in Prakash Raj who is a staunch Modi hater. By publicly supporting a Modi hater, Pawan Kalyan gave an indication to BJP that he no longer wants to travel with them. Chiranjeevi and Nagababu supported his brother Pawan Kalyan as they need his fans to support their sons — Ram Charan and Varun Tej.
Pawan Kalyan used his brother Naga babu to openly support Prakash Raj. Tollywood ended up choosing Manchu Vishnu who is local to film industry. Pawan Kalyan thought he can show his grip on film industry by making a Modi hater President of MAA association. But it not only backfired but also made a severe dent to Mega family image in Film Industry.
Chiru who tried to do damage control by calling for unity further hurt his image by inviting criticism from all quarters. Telangana State President Bandi Sanjay too tweeted against Prakash Raj whom Pawan Kalyan supported. Also the Badvel election is being contested by BJP while JSP is going to stay away from it.
The stage is set for Pawan Kalyan to come out of BJP alliance and join TDP again. Amidst all this, Chiru who was vying to take Dasari position as “Industry Pedda” had seriously blocked himself from getting into that position by supporting Pawan Kalyan and Prakash Raj.
Unless Chiru disowns Pawan Kalyan and his actions publicly, he will not get the lost respect in Tollywood!
