Chiranjeevi’s party to focus on “good governance”

HYDERABAD: “We are ready for the elections whenever they are held,” said K. Nagendra Babu, about the political party being launched by his film star-brother K. Chiranjeevi next month.

Mr. Nagababu, as he is known, did not agree with the suggestion that the timeframe between the party’s launch (likely in August) and the elections was too short to gear up the cadre. “Lakhs of film fans and supporters of my brother are already working behind the screen,” the actor said in response to a question about the categorical announcement of Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy that the general elections would be held after March 2009.

He dismissed with disdain the opinions expressed in certain quarters that there was no political vacuum for the megastar to fill as in 1982 when N. T. Rama Rao launched the Telugu Desam Party and rode to power, all in nine months. “Only journalists, intellectuals, critics and some political leaders are of this view.

We will prove them wrong,” he said in an interview on the sets of the Telugu film “Sarkar” directed by Kodi Ramakrishna, even as several aspirants from Kurnool looking for a role in the new political set up waited for an audience.

Mr. Nagababu, who is a key member of Chiranjeevi’s core team handling ‘public response’, justified it by saying people badly wanted a change. “I have visited every district, except Nellore and Nizamabad. The attendance and reaction at my meetings, especially from youth and women, were overwhelming though I am not a star myself. It clearly reveals that people are anxiously waiting to hear my brother speak.”
Draft policies

The burly actor said Mr. Chiranjeevi was devoting considerable time and energy to the party’s draft policies and on the logistics of setting the new party rolling. Asked what the party had to offer to people, he quipped, “good governance” which meant different things to different sections. Mr. Nagababu declined to spell out his party’s stand on Telangana, the support he expected from the backward class community and on the date of the party’s launch, saying they were ready with policies. But, these would be announced by ‘anna’ (elder brother) as he alone was “big enough” to speak.

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