The simmering discontent among the Jana Sena Party legislators over the step-motherly treatment being given to the party by big brother Telugu Desam Party has begun coming out in the open, despite their leader Pawan Kalyan displaying a lot of restraint.
At a Jana Sena Legislature Party meeting held at the party’s central office in Mangalagiri on Tuesday, party leaders have expressed dissatisfaction over what they perceive as inadequate recognition by alliance partner TDP.
Pawan Kalyan along with other Jana Sena Party ministers attended the meeting, where several key concerns were raised by the party leaders and MLAs.
They reportedly expressed dissatisfaction over issues such as the distribution of Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) cheques and the allocation of nominated posts.
They alleged that Jana Sena leaders were not receiving due importance in constituencies represented by TDP MLAs.
Party representatives conveyed to Pawan Kalyan that while Jana Sena extends full support to TDP in constituencies it represents, reciprocal respect is lacking.
Though they acknowledged cooperation from chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and minister Nara Lokesh at the state level, they claimed that such coordination was missing at the grassroots level.
Jana Sena MLA Bolisetti Srinivas stated that these concerns would be taken up in an upcoming coordination meeting with alliance partners.
Pawan Kalyan reportedly told them that he would look into all their concerns and discuss with the coalition partners.
He said in the next assembly elections, there would be increased number of assembly seats in the state and Jana Sena Party would get adequate share in the seats that would satisfy many leaders.
He asked the MLAs to focus on organizational strengthening, membership drives, formation of committees, and constituency-level issues.
He suggested adopting the “Pithapuram model” for committee structuring across constituencies and provided guidance on maintaining coordination within the alliance.
