: Film actor and Jana Sena founder Pawan Kalyan will address a public meeting at Indira Maidanam here on Saturday.
The meeting, scheduled for 4 p.m., will be similar to the one held at the launch of the Jana Sena in Hyderabad two years ago. He is expected to be the lone speaker at the meeting.
Party sources disclosed that the Tirupati platform may make Pawan get into serious politics, from when he will start questioning the government on its commissions and omissions.
The party representatives inspected MCT’s Nehru high school grounds, SVU’s Tarakarama stadium and TUDA’s Indira Maidanam and finally plumped for the last for the ‘mega’ public meeting, though it is the smallest among the three and hence could not hold even a portion of the expected crowd.
They also called on Superintendent of Police (Tirupati Urban) R. Jayalakshmi and sought permission and support from the department for holding the event. Though the police officials expressed their inability to provide full-scale security at short notice, the party offered to deploy its volunteers in large numbers.
The idea of holding a public meeting in Tirupati seems to have struck the organisers all of a sudden. In fact, there was no indication of having a public interface when Pawan turned up initially to call on the bereaved family of his fan Vinod Rayal, who was stabbed to death at Kolar in Karnataka three days ago in a squabble involving fans of two leading film actors.
It is, however, learnt that he is keen on channelling the pent-up emotions of the youth and the upbeat mood among his fans into a solid force to reckon with. Youth formed a huge chunk of the crowd surge that mobbed him at Vinod’s residence as well as at the Tirumala Srivari temple.
Pawan was closeted with his inner coterie members during his two-day stay on Tirumala hills, when the decision was apparently taken to address a public meeting. It was in the holy city of Tirupati that NTR launched his Telugu Desam Party and Pawan's brother Chiranjeevi launched his Praja Rajyam. While a political statement is widely expected, a section of Pawan’s followers rubbishes the ‘political angle,’ hinting that he would confine himself to delivering an emotional address. It is not a coincidence that Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam was officially launched on August 26 in 2008 and Pawan’s kick-start is just a day away, eight years later.
