The Bharatiya Janata Party is said to be banking on Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan to campaign for it in Karnataka elections, scheduled to be held on May 10, but so far, there has been no such indications from the power star.
According to the party sources, the BJP national leadership during its meeting with Pawan Kalyan early this month, reportedly requested him to campaign for the BJP in the constituencies dominated by Telugu voters, particularly in areas like Raichur, Bidar, Parbhani etc.
When Pawan Kalyan put forth the proposal to have an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party, the top BJP leaders reportedly told him that they would consider the proposal soon after the Karnataka assembly elections. But first, he should campaign for the BJP in Karnataka.
BJP MP and party’s Yuva Morcha national president Tejaswi Surya reportedly held discussions with Pawan Kalyan twice in this regard and presented a route map for him to campaign in the Karnataka elections.
“However, there has been no response from the power star till now. He did not say either yes or no. We do not know what transpired between him and the national leaders, but they conveyed to its Karnataka unit that the power star might campaign for the BJP,” a party leader from Karnataka said.
It is learnt Pawan Kalyan is not very much interested in campaigning for the BJP, as he doesn’t want to commit himself for continuing the alliance unless there is clarity on the political equations in Andhra Pradesh.