Jana Sena Party founder and cine actor Pawan Kalyan on Thursday announced at a public meeting here that the first office of his political party would be started at Anantapur.
Addressing a boisterous crowd in their thousands and primarily comprising youngsters, mostly male, at the Government Junior College grounds, Mr. Kalyan, clad in a plain dark blue shirt, said the party would contest the 2019 general elections even as he came down on the Centre for announcing a ‘special package’ in place of Special Category Status and the government for accepting and extolling the same as Talisman for the development of the State.
“The first party office of the Jana Sena will be started in Anantapur next year and we will contest the elections in 2019. I don’t know if I will win or not. But I will contest and continue to fight for you,” said Mr. Kalyan to a roaring applause from the people which drowned the public meeting for a few moments.
Arguing that the special package was nothing more than ‘political skill,’ he said it didn’t comprise any more funds than the Centre ought to have given us as the share from the taxes collected into the Central tax pool.
“The Centre ought to have given the State Rs. 1.7 lakh crore from the Central tax pool. Add another Rs. 22,000 crore to account for the promised help to fill the budget deficit of the State and it adds up to Rs. 1.9 lakh odd crore. I don’t understand basing on what Mr. Arun Jaitley and Mr. Venkaiah Naidu gave figures of Rs. 2.03 lakh crore and Rs. 2.25 lakh crore [respectively]. There is a Polavaram project between their claims,” said Mr. Kalyan even as proceeded to cite various points to pick holes in the package.
