Pawan Kalyan to contest from Pithapuram assembly constituency

Hyderabad: Amid speculations that he might contest the Lok Sabha elections from Kakanida, Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan on Thursday announced that he would be contesting from Pithapuram in the Andhra Pradesh assembly election.

It is learnt that BJP had suggested he contest from one of the two Lok Sabha seats allocated to Jana Sena in the alliance and become a cabinet minister if he wins and NDA forms the government at the Centre.

Jana Sena has been allotted Kakinada and Machilipatnam Lok Sabha seats. While Pawan Kalyan had already finalised Vallabhaneni Balashowry for Machilipatnam, BJP wanted the actor-turned-politician to contest from Kakinada.

In the 2019 polls, Pawan contested from Gajuwaka and also Bhimavaram and lost both. Now, he had set his sights on a safe seat and found Pithapuram in Kakinada district.

Pithapuram has around 90,000 votes of Kapus, the community Pawan Kalyan belongs to. The segment also has around 80,000 votes of backward classes. In the last few elections, a majority of those who won the segment were Kapus.

In the last election, Pandem Dorababu of YSRCP won the seat by securing around 44.7per cent of the total polled votes. TDP candidate Varma garnered 36.68 per cent votes and Jana Sena nominee Makineedi Seshu Kumari got 15per cent of the votes.

However, Pawan Kalyan's announcement to contest from Pithapuram has stirred up a storm, leading to a massive uproar at the office of SVSN Varma, the TDP in charge of Pithapuram.

Angered TDP supporters from Pithapuram burnt the TDP- Jana Sena alliance's manifesto and TDP flags.