If at a public meeting of the Praja Rajyam president Chiranjeevi, you encounter hundreds, if not thousands of ‘Chiranjeevis’ huddled in a particular corner, don’t be surprised. That’s how the PR is trying to draw attention to its president. In the race to be one up during campaign for the ensuing elections, they have gone in for what is considered a first in Andhra Pradesh — masks of the party president, made of soft, non-toxic latex which is the same material used to make soft toys. Moving Pixels, an Ahmedabad-based company, has been entrusted the task of making the masks and the first batch was delivered to the party on the same day as Mr. Chiranjeevi’s public meeting in Rajahmundry, two days ago. Manish Bardia, CEO, Moving Pixels, said as far as India was concerned, Mr. Chiranjeevi was the second after Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to use the masks. As for the masks themselves, they were also the first realistic ones that did not use caricatures as the base. “We took extensive 360 degree and grid photographs, did 360 degree profiling and took 85 measurements from different angles, after which we prepared plaster moulds. The first mould took us 15 days. The second and final one took almost a month and has been accepted in toto,” he said. Minimal use Interestingly, masks of former British Prime Minister, American presidents like Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagon and more recently, those of Barack Obama have been used primarily for Halloween parties, apart from minimal use during elections. “We expect widespread use of the masks during Mr. Chiranjeevi’s election campaign,” Mr. Bardia said. Hundreds of ‘Chiranjeevis’ will be present at public meetings of Praja Rajyam president Chiranjeevi

Chiru playing holi at Airport

Praja Rajyam has pooh-poohed the YSR government’s claim of providing irrigation water to 14 lakh acres in the State and wanted the Congress to come out with a white paper. While the party had promised in its 2004 election manifesto to irrigate 1 crore acres, it announced in the recent development campaign to have irrigated 14 lakh acres. “In reality, the government failed to provide an additional ayacut of even 14,000 acres. If so, we demand the Congress to release a white paper showing the projects through which water was released, the region-wise and district-wise break-up of crops sown with the additional water and the yield thus accrued to farmers,” PR State coordinating secretary (Farm Affairs), Myna Swamy, told reporters here on Thursday. Even as the farm sector continued to reel under crisis, the government unabashedly painted a rosy picture, ignoring the reports submitted by the committees headed by Jayati Ghosh and M.S. Swaminathan. He wanted that the reports be made public and the recommendations implemented. Flaying the Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy regime for failing to provide power even four hours a day to the farmers, PR promised to give quality power for ten hours.

HYDERABAD: In a frontal attack on Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Praja Rajyam (PR) president K. Chiranjeevi wondered what people like those who had ‘engineered’ communal riots in the State capital could do to help improve the lot of Muslims.

Addressing a meeting of Muslims at a private function hall in the old city, he recalled former Chief Minister late Marri Chenna Reddy saying that some leaders had triggered riots in the old city to unseat him as Chief Minister. He asked people to consider whether Congress leaders, who could do anything to dethrone a Chief Minister, would ever seriously think of the welfare of the minority community.

Mr. Chiranjeevi regretted that successive governments had treated the Muslim community only as a vote bank. He said the PR, as a secular party, would look after the interests of the minorities and come up with innovative programmes and improved allocation for their development.

Babri Masjid
He accused the Congress of being responsible for the demolition of Babri Masjid and pointed a finger at the BJP for the Godhra carnage. By not speaking out against the BJP for the Godhra incidents, the TDP could not also call itself secular. Continuing to attack the BJP, Mr. Chiranjeevi said there was no way his party would ever align with such a party

Mr. Chiranjeevi announced the name of Humayun as the candidate for the newly created Jubilee Hills constituency.

Gone are the days when political heavyweights used to deliver power-packed dialogues during poll campaigns while youngsters watched them in awe. It is a total turnaround now with “little masters” ruling the roost much to the displeasure of seniors. When Jr NTR, grandson of the Telugu Desam founder, N.T. Rama Rao, delivers high-voltage dialogues a filmi style, seasoned politicians like, Mr K. Yerrannaidu, simply stand by the side to seek the blessings of the voters. The TD and the Praja Rajyam, which are vying for power in the state, are turning to “generation-next” campaigners to push them to victory. After Jr NTR’s entry into the campaign, the PR is now planning to use its own “little masters” in the canvassing battle. To counter the impact of Jr NTR’s road shows, the PR leadership is thinking about bringing young actors in the PR chief’s family, Mr Ram Charan Teja, son of Chiranjeevi, and Mr Allu Arjun, son of Mr Allu Aravind, for poll campaigning. When scribes asked about the possibility of campaigning by Teja and Arjun, the PR general secretary, Mr Aravind, did not rule it out. “We are thinking over it,” he said. “Earlier, we decided not to use their services as both of them are too young. But, now to muster the support of youngsters, we are thinking about bringing them into the campaign fold.” Sources said, Mr Teja and Arjun would soon tour the state to neutralise the impact of Junior NTR. In fact, Chiranjeevi’s son has already sung a song in the PR’s poll campaign CD to drum up the support of youngsters for the fledgling party.

Praja Rajyam president Chiranjeevi sought to be dismissive of the Telugu Desam’s bid to counter him through Balakrishna and Junior NTR, saying people would not get carried away by cine glamour but wanted a good future.

In a brief chat with reporters at Begumpet airport soon after his arrival from Rajahmundry, he said that people might come and listen to film stars due to cine glamour, but ultimately they want their future to be glamorous. “Their future is important,” he remarked. He said that the huge turnout at Rajahmundry had proved the Praja Rajyam’s doomsayers, who were trying to mislead people through jugglery of figures, wrong.

Colourful welcome

The megastar who was greeted by PR supporters with sprinkling of colours on his arrival at the airport, extended his greetings to the people on the occasion of Holi and hoped that their lives would be equally colourful.

Rajahmundry Staff Reporter adds:

Addressing a press conference here, Mr.Chiranjeevi alleged that a few coverts who joined and left the party had made baseless allegations that the party was minting money through the sale of tickets. Winding up his tour of East Godavari, Mr Chiranjeevi said that one leader who left the PR and joined an opposition party two days ago had made allegations of sale of tickets, while another spoke of lack of social justice in the party.

Alleges mischief

“They are all coverts sent by ruling and opposition parties to weaken the PR. But the PR will not succumb to their tactics,” he asserted.

The PR workers will not get demoralised by surveys of other parties which forecast that the party would not get more than a couple of Lok Sabha seats, he said.

Referring to the huge gathering at Tuesday’s ‘Sankharavam,’ he said the party would not bag less than three Lok Sabha seats in East Godavari alone.

He maintained that the PR would win a sizeable number of Assembly seats, adding that the party would not align with any party in the State or at the national level.

Chiranjeevi SPEECH in Samajika Nyaya Sankharavam

RAJAHMUNDRY/ HYDERABAD: Flush with the unprecedented success of his public meeting in Rajahmundry, Prajarajyam Party (PRP) chief Chiranjeevi was

spitting fire on Wednesday. He levelled serious charges against the TDP, saying that the party has “planted” some persons as coverts to destroy him and damage his party’s reputation.

Chiranjeevi told newspersons that some Telugu Desam Party (TDP) men joined PRP and were trying to damage him by making unnecessary charges. Countering the charge that PRP charges Rs 2 crore from each aspirant to contest the elections, he said: “It’s rubbish. Some coverts planted by the TDP in PRP are making such allegations. Now, such elements are out of the PRP.”

This is the first time that Chiranjeevi was mentioning publicly about his party being infiltrated, but sources say that he has been discussing these matters with close aides. “Soon after Chiranjeevi launched his party, he realised that his office was being bugged, his phones tapped and movements of his aides being monitored,” highly placed sources told TOI. Sources also said that he made a close circle of his family members when he realised that important political decisions were getting leaked out within minutes of it being made. “He did not know what to do and for starters went into a cocoon,” a source said. It is understood that other than officials of the state intelligence bureau, Chiranjeevi was also looking at the Congress with suspicion in this matter.

Political analysts tended to agree with the gist of Chiranjeevi’s belief. “I would reckon that his suspicions are not out of place. It does seem that there is infiltration into his party,” said a senior leader from another political party.

On Wednesday, without mentioning the names of Kesineni Nani of Vijayawada and Vasamsetti Satya of East Godavari who joined the TDP, Chiranjeevi said some leaders were TDP “stooges” who tried to vitiate the atmosphere in PRP.

Chiranjeevi denied that tickets are being allotted only to affluent persons and termed it as bad propaganda against him and his party. “Our list will have a fresh look with lots of new faces. We will field maximum number of backward caste candidates,” Chiranjeevi said. He said the PRP would release the first list in four to five days.

But Chiranjeevi was evasive about his stand on allocation of more seats for women, reducing or increasing the seats to Kapu leaders and controlling his fans at public meetings. Chiranjeevi asserted he would contest the April 23 election from Tirupati. “Tirupati is fixed. But I have not decided on contesting from Narsapuram in West Godavari,” he said. He said he would certainly enter the fray from another constituency.

In the event of PRP coming to power, Chiranjeevi assured that liquor prohibition would be introduced in a phased manner and belt shops would be closed immediately. On Congress government’s Jalayagnam, he said PRP would not take up all the projects at one time.

Chiranjeevi reiterated that there is no question of his party supporting the BJP at the national level. The PRP chief expressed the hope that his party would get a common symbol.