Pawan Kalyan defends “sacrifice” in TDP and BJP seat-sharing formula

In an exclusive interview with India Today TV, Pawan Kalyan, the chairman of the Jana Sena Party (JSP) and actor, said that he had to “sacrifice” seats for the JSP, TDP, and BJP alliance since it was for the “greater good.”.

The Telugu Desam Party, the BJP, and the Jana Sena have finalized their seat-sharing arrangement. Of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh, the TDP will run for 17 of them, the BJP for six, and the Jana Sena for two. This is a one-point decrease from Jana Sena’s initial figure of three.

Similarly, Jana Sena’s initial 24 assembly candidates have been trimmed to 21 in order to fulfill the BJP’s desire to run for 10 seats. Of the 175 seats, 144 will be contested by the Telugu Desam.

According to Kalyan’s interview, he is aware of what it means to lose seats as a “middleman.”.

“In these conversations, we had to surrender a few seats in this coalition (TDP-JSP-BJP), and I was only able to grant a few candidates seats. We either lost or had to make sacrifices since it was our candidates. I know exactly what it’s like to lose the role of intermediary,” he said.

We just so happen to be the ones who have to make sacrifices when we go with a large heart. However, it is positive because I went with the best of intentions and was able to make concessions; in my opinion, losing five or ten of our guys was worthwhile for the five crore people,” Kalyan said.

In order to justify his party’s “sacrifice” in forming the partnership in Andhra Pradesh, the actor-politician also used a proverb from the ancient Indian scripture Vidura Neeti.

In an interview with India Today TV, Kalyan emphasized that he was “forced to even sacrifice” his brother Naga Babu’s Lok Sabha seat. He ran for the Narasapuram seat in 2019 but was defeated by the YSRCP candidate.

The expression ‘for a family, a man, for a village, a family and for a kingdom (rajyam), a village sacrifice’ is found in Vidur Neeti. Similarly, we, the people of Andhra Pradesh, have to make certain sacrifices for the betterment of the state. We were even compelled to give up my own brother Naga Babu’s position in parliament,” Kalyan said.

“He (Naga Babu) is someone who taught me history lessons, who plays a huge role in my life, and still, despite giving him my word on a ticket, in this alliance, the only solution for me was to sacrifice it,” he said.

Kalyan went on to say that his brother has stood by him and promised to fight for the party even after losing the Lok Sabha seat.

“After all of that, my brother sent me a letter today promising to support us through thick and thin and provide his assistance in any way he can to make sure we win all 21 seats. and support our alliance partners in winning wherever they are. He remarked, “I want to express my sincere gratitude to my brother for his assertion and conviction.