Rift in Jana Sena spills out into open

Internal bickering in the Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Party (JSP) spilled out into the open during a coordination meeting with the TDP members here on Wednesday. A scuffle broke out within the rank and file of the Jana Sainiks in front of the TDP leaders over some issue. A meeting between the leaders of TDP and Jana Sena was held at Uppala Chandrasekhar Kalyana Mandapam in Anakapalle on Wednesday.
During the meeting, two groups of Jana Sena workers belonging to Gopi and Parachuri Bhaskar Rao had an argument over a petty issue, which soon escalated into a brawl. The two groups came to blows and the TDP members had to intervene in the matter.
It is said the TDP leaders knew that the two groups of Jana Sena have differences and yet they invited them to the coordination meeting to discuss the agenda provided by their respective party leaders.
The rift in the Jana Sena Party first came to the fore when one group tried to belittle the other during party chief Pawan Kalyan’s previous visit to Anakapalle. They both had fought over erecting the flexis to welcome the actor-turned politician to the town.
In a similar incident, the leaders of both TDP and Jana Sena were engaged in heated arguments during a coordination meeting of the alliance in the erstwhile West Godavari district. Even though both Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan have publicly announced the pre-poll tie-up between the TDP and Jana Sena, this alliance is not visible among the cadres of both the parties.
The leaders of TDP and Jana Sena met for the coordination meeting at the TDP office in Pithapuram on Tuesday. Constituency in-charge and former MLA SVS Varma from TDP and constituency in-charge Uday Srinivas Tangella from Jana Sena led the talks. Commencing the meeting, Varma leader said developmental works worth Rs 2,800 crore were taken up by the TDP government in the constituency.
Jana Sena leader Tangella interrupted the TDP leader’s speech and asked if the previous TDP government spent so much money for the development of the constituency, why the people defeated their party. This angered Varma, who minced no words and said party leader Naidu was never defeated, but their party chief Pawan failed to win a single seat in the previous Assembly elections. The TDP leader’s counter-argument led to scuffle between the leaders and workers of both the parties.