There is no better entertaining news for the readers of newspapers than actor-turned-Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday.
All the three major Telugu dailies – Eenadu, Andhra Jyothy and Sakshi have carried the BJP-Jana Sena alliance prominently but with different lead points.
Sakshi which took it as a second lead story quoted him as saying that both Jana Sena and BJP shared a common ideology.
This is a laughable claim by the Jana Sena chief. Till the other day, he used to claim himself to be a Left-oriented man, as he grew up with Communist ideology thanks to his father.
Bolivian Communist leader Che Guevara was his role model, so much so that he imitated the former in his attire and appearance.
Pawan was also fascinated by the Marxist philosophy and he had claimed to have read the Communist manifesto many times and was inspired from it. He is a great fan of Gaddar, the revolutionary singer from Telangana.
Now, this gentleman suddenly changes his colours from red to saffron and says he shares the common ideology with the BJP!
When there is an outburst across the nation over implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act, Pawan surprisingly supports the same. He also backs National Register for Citizens, which is being opposed by many states.
And finally, Pawan says he doesn’t owe anything to the Communists with whom he had alliance in the last elections and provided cadre for his rallies and agitations. This is the mother of all U-turns!
For some reason, Eenadu made Pawan’s new avatar as a banner story which is against its editorial policy.
It also prominently carried the statement of BJP state in-charge Sunil Deodhar that there would be no alliance with the Telugu Desam Party or YSR Congress party.
Andhra Jyothy ignored the somersault of Pawan but focussed on his statement and that of the BJP leaders that they would not allow the shifting of capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.
For that matter, both Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy continued with their agenda of promoting the agitation by Amaravati farmers against the capital shift.
Eenadu highlighted how the farmers had stayed away from Sankranti celebrations and took up a hunger strike for the sake of Amaravati and the demand of Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu’s demand for a referendum on the capital.
At the same time, it carried an anchor story on how Andhra Pradesh would lose a major national highway and outer-ring road around Amaravati, if the capital is shifted.
On the other hand, Andhra Jyothy carried a banner story on the alleged fake report in the name of IIT-Madras on Amaravati being unfit for capital due to the possibility of 70 per cent inundation of the region if there are floods to Krishna river.
The stay imposed by the Andhra Pradesh high court on the conduct of local body elections in the state on the issue of reservations was another major news that hit the headlines on the front pages of the leading dailies. For Sakshi, it was a banner story and its rivals, too, gave it a lot of importance in coverage.
The appointment of senior Congress leader S Sailajanath as the APCC chief and Telugu boy topping the CA entrance at the national level are the other interesting news that figured in the front pages of the major dailies.