Pawan Kalyan confident, but cadres worried about survival of Jana Sena

Vijayawada: Jana Sena cadres are worried over the future of the party but its chief K Pawan Kalyan has decided to run the party at any cost. The JS won only one seat, Razole.

While JS chief Pawan himself lost the election from two seats, his brother K Naga Babu, former joint director of CBI VV Lakshminarayana, Pentapati Pulla Rao, former Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar and other prominent leaders were also defeated.

This poor show depressed JS cadres. Amidst speculation that he would quit politics due to the defeat, Mr Kalyan is conducting review meetings with candidates and leaders in the state JS office and imbuing confidence among cadres about the continuation of the party.

Mr Kalyan contested from Bhimavaram and Gajuwaka Assembly seats. The Gajuwaka seat had the highest number of young voters. Senior leaders like Pasupuleti Balaraju, Mutha Sasidhar, Petani Balakrishna, Kan-dula Durgesh, Bolisetti Srinivas, Muttamsetti Krishna Rao, PV Mahesh, B Ramakrishna, A Bharat Bhushan, Ravela Kishore Babu, Thota Chandrasekhar and others lost the elections in their seats.

JS senior leaders said that the YSRC had succeeded in branding the JS as the “B” team of the Telugu Desam. They said that Mr Kalyan did not question the TD's corruption and illegalities and instead questioned the opposition YSRC.

Mr Kalyan on Friday conducted a review meeting in the JS state office at Mangalagiri with candidates. He aid that the party meetings will be held in June first week and he would draw up an action plan to strengthen the party. He denied rumours that he would shut down the party due to the defeat.