It is now more or less certain that Jana Sena Party headed by power star Pawan Kalyan will have a pre-poll alliance with the Left parties – CPI and CPI (M) in the 2019 elections.A decision to this effect is learnt to have been taken at a meeting of Pawan Kalyan with the CPI and CPI (M) leaders including K Ramakrishna and P Madhu and others in Hyderabad on Thursday. A formal announcement is likely to be made shortly, party sources said.

It is learnt Jana Sena and the Left parties would have a convention in Vijayawada, where they will announce a formation of Jana Sena-Left front. They will work out a common agenda which comprises fight for special category status and other issues concerning the people of Andhra Pradesh.For the last few days, Jana Sena and Left parties have been saying that they would work together to put up a united fight on the common issues confronting the people. Now, Jana Sena took an official decision.

This is a sort of win-win situation for Pawan and Left parties. The Left parties have a massive cadre base, which will be of great help to Jana Sena as the latter does not have any organisational structure.On the other hand, the charisma of Pawan Kalyan can fetch a few seats for the Left parties which virtually have lost their presence in the assembly.

Above all, by joining hands with the Left parties, Pawan can counter the allegations of the TDP that he was dancing to the tunes of the Bharatiya Jana Party!

With elections to the Andhra Pradesh assembly fast approaching, political parties have started indulging in attacks against one another using social media as a platform.

And not just parties, even the fans and followers of political party heads – be it Telugu Desam Party president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu or YSR Congress party chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy or Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan have been running down their opponents, digging out the old comments of their leaders or political goofs-up or unpopular decisions or even their previous statements which are contradictory to their present stands.

For example, an old statement made by Naidu explaining how he had got an offer to become the Prime Minister of the country in 1996 and 1997 and how he had turned it down for the sake of the state is now doing rounds in some Facebook groups. And this statement has brought out an interesting claim made Naidu.

Who prevented Naidu from becoming the Prime Minister?

Well, according to Naidu, several regional party heads had proposed his name for the PM post when the United Front replaced the Congress party after 1996 Lok Sabha elections.“I would have considered the offer, but my son Lokesh gave me the right advice. He told me that the PM post was not permanent, whereas if continued as the chief minister, I could do a lot for the people of the state. If people blessed me, I could continue as the chief minister for a long time,” Naidu recalled then.

So, it was Lokesh who had brainwashed his father and stopped him from becoming the PM and the chance had gone to H D Deve Gowda first and I K Gujral later.Now, the netizens are questioning how Lokesh had analysed the situation with so much maturity at such a young age.Lokesh was born in 1983 and so, he must have been just 13 years old in 1996. How can a 13-year old boy give such a crucial advice to Naidu on PM post and how Naidu had accepted it? Didn’t he have his own wisdom?

Well, you cannot do anything except listening to Naidu’s crazy statements!

A few months ago, it was Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao who kicked up a nation-wide debate on floating a third political alternative to the Congress and the BJP at the national level.At his party’s plenary in Hyderabad in April, KCR even announced his intentions to foray into national politics by floating a federal front of all regional parties.

He flew down to Kolkata to talk to Trinamul Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to discuss the modalities of the federal front.He also held talks with Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, Janata Dal (S) chief H D Deve Gowda, JMM chief Hemanth Soren and DMK chief M K Stalin in this connection.

But subsequently, KCR went silent on the federal front plan, though his party leaders have been talking about it on and off.Apparently, the regional party heads have realised that his attempts were aiming at only weakening the Congress and strengthening the BJP. So, they stopped interacting with him.

Even at the Niti Ayog general council meeting held in June, the opposition party leaders ignored KCR and cosied up with Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu.Now, it looks like KCR has been completely kept out of the federal front.It was evident from the way Mamata Banerjee invited several regional party heads, except KCR, to her proposed mega rally of federal front in Kolkata on Jaunary 19.

Apart from TDP, DMK, RJD, Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal (S), she also called YSR Congress party, an enemy of the TDP, to the rally. She even called BJP’s ally Shiv Sena to the rally, , but not the TRS.Reason is obvious. The TMC wants the Congress to be part of the proposed front, but KCR is strongly opposing the same.On the other hand, the TRS and BJD are indirectly backing the Narendra Modi government and the BJP.So, the federal front has gone out of KCR’s hands and the TMC chief hijacked the same.

Former chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy, who returned to the Congress party fold recently, is learnt to have dampened the spirits of some of his party leaders who want to indirectly back the Telugu Desam Party in the next elections to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party.

At a meeting of the senior party functionaries held in Vijayawada on Thursday, Kiran reportedly made it clear that the Congress should go it alone in the next elections in AP, without supporting any party or taking support of any other party.

When a senior leader suggested that the Congress should declare YSR Congress party chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy as the main enemy, since the latter is allegedly hand in glove with the BJP, Kiran said: “Why only Jagan? Even Chandrababu Naidu is our enemy. Let us not single out any leader. The Congress should treat all the other parties as its political rivals.”

Some leaders are said to be of the view that the Congress should adopt a soft approach towards the TDP, since it might join hands with the Congress party at the national level after the elections.But, Kiran opposed such an idea, stating that the Congress would have to go on the back foot, if it supported the ruling party.That is why, after the meeting, AICC general secretary in-charge of AP affairs Oomen Chandy declared that the Congress will not have any alliances in AP and will fight the elections alone.