PowerStarTrends: Tweets In Crores, Votes In Lakhs

Pawan Kalyan is undoubtedly one of the biggest crowd pullers down the South. His mass image, stardom, humongous fan base have been proved time and again. Even as he took a break from cinema and forayed into politics, his comeback film (Pink remake) – Vakeel Saab – has been drawing craze. Recently, Pawan’s fans showed their strength again.

The hashtag #AdvanceHBDPawanKalyan has become the biggest ever Twitter trend in India which amassed 27.3 million tweets in just 24 hours. This is considere as the biggest ever Birthday Trend for any Indian actor. All these stats

However, the moot question on many lips is why Pawan is failing in politics despite having such a huge mass image. Why Pawan is failing to convert that fan base into political following and subsequently into votes which eventually translate into seats that decide the power and position. Why political power is still elusive for Power Star?

While there could have been multiple tweets from the same twitter handle/account among the 27.3 million tweets polled in 24 hours, many tweets could be from NRIs and fans staying in other states (including Telangana where Janasena doesn’t contest polls) of the country. And most importantly, not to forget the fact that a section of Pawan’s fans base could be students who still haven’t had a vote in 2019 and still there could be many who may not have eligibility to vote. Even one keeps all these exceptions aside which could be roughly estimated upto 17.3 million, the balance 10 million (1 crore) tweets could be worth translating into votes.

In 2019, Pawan Kalyan’s Janasena secured a meager 6.8 percent votes. While the total valid votes cast in 2019 were 3.14 crore, YSRCP secured 1.56 crore votes, TDP secured 1.23 crore. Whereas Janasena got only 21 lakh votes. In fact, Pawan lost in both the seats he had contested.

Given these poor numbers in the performance of Janasena in 2019 polls, Pawan needs to focus on his fan base and come up with a strategy to convert his fan base into voters. While Pawan’s fans of seeing their favourite star as the Chief Minister in real life is far from reality now, the blessing in disguise is that it is not impractical. It is very much possible if someone musters all his fans together and turns towards Janasena. In short, Pawan Kalyan (PK) needs a poll strategist like Prashant Kishor (PK) for Janasena’s revival. Till then, Pawan’s hawa and hungama would be limited to Twitter Trends and Box Office Records.