Krishnam Raju denied PRP ticket?

Hyderabad, March 30 (IANS) Film producer and Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) general secretary Allu Aravind Monday filed his nomination for Ankapalli Lok Sabha constituency in coastal Andhra Pradesh.

Keeping everybody guessing till the last minute, Allu Aravind reached Visakhapatnam from Hyderabad to file his papers on the last day of filing of nominations.

His name was included in the fourth list of candidates released Monday. There was suspense as to which constituency he will contest from. Some party leaders had hinted that he might contest from Visakhapatnam.

Allu Aravind is brother-in-law of actor-turned-politician and Praja Rajyam president Chiranjeevi. He is considered to be the brain behind Chiranjeevi’s plunge into politics.

Allu Aravind is the only close relative of Chiranjeevi who will be contesting the next month’s elections. The actor’s brothers, actors Pavan Kalyan and Naga Babu are not contesting, while Chiranjeevi will be contesting from Tirupati assembly constituency.

Meanwhile, the party has denied a ticket to veteran actor and former union minister Krishnam Raju, who was expected to be fielded from Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency.

Raju had quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to join Chiranjeevi’s party last month and party sources had hinted that he might get the ticket from Visakhapatnam or Narsapuram.

PRP has fielded Srinivas Yadav from Visakhapatnam. The other Lok Sabha candidates in the fourth list are Kasani Gyaneswar (Chevella) and Balraj Goud (Mahabubnagar). Both Gyaneswar and Goud are leaders of Mana Party, which has entered into seat sharing agreement with PRP.

embarrassing moment for chiru with Krishnam Raju

Finally, former Union Minister U V Krishnam Raju joined Praja Rajyam Party in the presence of its president Chiranjeevi.

However, Krishnam Raju created some embarrassing moments for Chiranjeevi, while addressing a joint press conference. He said he had no problems with Bharatiya Janata Party, whatsoever, but decided to join the PRP only because he felt that he would not be able to serve the state by being in the BJP. To a question, he said at the national level, he would prefer the BJP to the Congress in forming the government.

This naturally created trouble for Chiru, who had earlier outrightly ruled out aligning with the BJP. Chiru, took the mike, and said he did not oppose the BJP or any other party for that matter, but only said the PRP policy was secular and hence would not suit the BJP philosophy.

There was another embarrassing question from the media: whether Krishnam Raju, who was a guru for Chiranjeevi in films, would remain the same in the PRP. Chiranjeevi laughed it off and said he was prepared to give the mantle to Krishnam Raju and be with the people always.