In Andhra Pradesh, everything about Chiranjeevi (star of some of our uber malarial videos 1,2 ), is dramatic – from films to real life.

Cowboy CM for Andhra Pradesh?
Image Source: Idlebrain.com

Born as Konidela Vara Prasad exactly 53 years ago to this day, but popularly known as Chiranjeevi, it hasn’t been too surprising to see that his political foray in the region has caused much excitement, some confusion, some fear of political instability and added a whole lot of chaos. Other than his popularity as a film star he is also known for activities like managing a blood and eye bank that projects him as a philanthropist.

To some extent, caste communities play a major role in Andhra Pradesh (AP) politics, where the caste background of a political candidate is a point of discussion in public or private conversations. And Chiranjeevi has a statistical advantage, depending on how positively or negatively he woos his own community members without really intimidating members of other communities.

Just to present a clearer picture, the population composition is statistically ^[1] as follows:

So called- Other ‘Backward’ castes – 35-44% (Categorized further into A, B, C and D)
Scheduled Castes – 16%
Kapus – 10-12% (Chiranjeevi) (future CM?)
Reddys – 8-10% (current CM)
Scheduled Tribes – 7%
Chaudurys – 4-5% (ex-CM)
Brahmins – 2-4%
Vaishyas – 2-4%
others – < 3-4%

Chiranjeevi (Kapu – 10-12%) has a numerical advantage, but again this is politics, not math or stats and it would be amateurish to predict his political rise just based on numbers. Numbers – maybe not, but the charisma he holds is only next to that of the legendary N.T. Rama Rao (NTR), if not the same.

NTR started off like Chiranjeevi, humble origins, came into movies without any family presence established, made it big – absolutely big and stepped into politics, sweeping the state with regional pride after establishing the ‘Telugu Desam Party’(TDP). And taking full political advantage of the situation where a young headstrong Rajiv Gandhi had the audacity to insult the sitting Chief Minister of a state (link) publicly. NTR used this as a means to convey to the people that, the congress led center had utter disregard for Telugus and went on to create a history of sorts by defeating the congress govt. in AP, even while Indira Gandhi failed to assess the impact of his popularity and dismissed his plunge into politics as a ‘political joke’.

26 years later, a film star entering into AP state politics is no more a joke, and every politician knows that. The current ruling party is congress – just like it was when NTR took the step in 1982. And Chiranjeevi has tested the waters reasonably well before taking the plunge. Releasing his political intentions in a controlled way to the media, without confirming anything until recently. And his ‘fans’ going into a frenzy every single time a news item came into limelight, even attacking other film stars (link) who made clear statements about their personal opinions, which cannot even be considered rude or damaging. For Chiranjeevi, his ‘fans’ are his greatest support and also his worst enemy, they tend to go hysterical for every minor thing and, other political leaders take full advantage of this, blaming his so called ‘fans’ for every disturbance in the state.

His entry wasn’t totally surprising, with the earlier part of this decade having his movie roles with punch lines like ‘born for the people’ and such. And his entry is not going to be a cakewalk for the next assembly elections in 2009 either, he has to face political veterans in other parties and that include the current CM – Y S Rajashekara Reddy and ex-CM, N Chandrababu Naidu. Also, there’s perceived support for Chandrababu Naidu from NTR’s son – Balakrishna another popular actor in the state, unfortunately with a surname that has the power to get him off the hook of an attempted homicide (link) and no one complained, not even the people he ‘allegedly’ shot at. This is one of the probable incidents that has stopped Balakrishna from becoming a CM himself. However, Balakrishna is more famous for his on screen portrayal and there are no major scandalous incidents recorded in his history other than the one mentioned. The point is, Balakrishna is influential too, and he could easily work for TDP and challenge Chiranjeevi. Other than Balakrishna himself, a horde of younger artists like NTR Jr (NTR’s grandson), who are ready to help TDP when it needs them.

If Chiranjeevi can overcome the hurdles and political onslaught from power-seeking politicians, other challenges will open up.

• The Telangana agitation – that politicians comfortably bring up every time when they are not in power and use it to create regional instability in the state.
• Terrorism – which frequently visits Hyderabad and has no silver bullet solution. Hyderabadis suffer through it, try to heal and, face it again before they forget it. While the governments at the state and the center are clueless until there’s a loss of life.

And there are many other issues- corruption, naxalism, farmers deaths, inflation, pollution, congested roads, criminal elements and other things. Chiranjeevi’s family which is also well established in the film industry (two actor/producer brothers, actor-son, actor-nephew, producer brother-in-law) and there’s enough evidence from the media to believe that his family entourage not only support his political intentions but are very actively involved and may take a plunge into it in the near future (link). We can expect to see another political family in the making, like the Gandhis at the center and Nandamuris (NTR’s family) at the state.

While it is hard to predict Chiranjeevi’s success or his political eloquence, they are a few points to consider. His public record has been reasonably clean, save the indirect incidents about his youngest brother’s strained first marriage or his youngest daughter’s runaway marriage. He is one of the highest paid actors in the state, with some of his older classics being termed as masterpieces and his new movies mostly categorized as ‘mass’ pieces, somewhat entertaining but not exactly meaningful cinema.

And his political moves are unique, according to news reports he has no problems calling upon people from different parties – L.K. Advani from BJP, Y S Rajashekara Reddy from Congress, Chandrababu Naidu from TDP, members of CPI to prove to them that he is willing to work together with them. And awarding his party’s honorary first member membership to a fan who happened to have a physical disability and waited by Chiranjeevi’s office for hours to have a glimpse of the star, two very good management tactics, other than Chirajeevi’s possibly good moral intentions. Also, there are reports of political leaders from other parties (with or without a clean background) jumping to his follower ship while he did indeed accept people with questionable history into the party.

There’s no denying the fact that the upcoming months will be interesting, and chaotic at a political level. And there’s a lot of scope for some off-screen entertainment from Chiranjeevi, who will announce his party’s name, flag and manifesto in the next couple of days, and his frenzied fan following going gaga over ‘Mega star’ Chiranjeevi.

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References:

1. K.C. Suri – Democratic Process and Electoral Politics
in Andhra Pradesh, India.

http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/working_papers/wp180.pdf

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