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Chiru draws big crowds in YSR’s bastion

Special Correspondent

Youth, women cheer Praja Rajyam president in Pulivendula

REACHING OUT: Praja Rajyam president Chiranjeevi throws garlands at the cheering crowds in Pulivendula on Wednesday.

PULIVENDULA: Notwithstanding the prevailing tension in the wake of violence here on Tuesday night, Praja Rajyam president Chiranjeevi drew huge crowds, comprising mainly youth and women, for his road show in this Assembly constituency represented by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

Flag-waving youth showering flower petals on Mr. Chiranjeevi lustily cheered him all through his address, overshadowing the protest of the Congressmen, who waved a couple of black flags from atop a building at Poola Angallu circle, and earlier near the Sri Venkateswara temple.

Mr. Chiranjeevi twirled his moustache and struck his thigh on the crowd’s request near the bus stand, to re-enact a scene from his popular film ‘Indra’. He arrived in this town almost five hours behind schedule as the tyre of his vehicle got punctured as also due to his last minute decision to change the route because Congressmen planned to obstruct his convoy near Balapanur, the native village of the Chief Minister.

Mr. Chiranjeevi surprised his detractors in the Congress by showering praise on the Chief Minister for the development of Pulivendula. Promising to develop the entire State on the lines of Pulivendula if he gained power, he said with a tinge of sarcasm that the greenery all around, good roads, high-rise buildings and the development of the town, was inspiring. He made an indirect reference to the manner in which Praja Rajyam leaders were chased away on Tuesday when he said the State should have special economic zones (SEZs) and not ‘special political zones’ reserved for the entry of only some leaders.

‘Passport and visa’

Pulivendula was on the Telugu soil and should not have borders which some could not cross, he said. “Why the tension and mental stress to go to Pulivendula? The people’s love was his passport and their affection his ‘visa’, he stated. Referring to his native village Mogalthur, he said his father, a constable, moved out on transfers when he was just a one-year-old boy. “I neither have relatives nor own properties or even a cent of land there.”

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