JSP Final List: 8 Outsiders Get Lucky

Janasena chief Pawan Kalyan has clearly mentioned to his party cadres that he wants his party to have the best chance of winning all 21 seats that it is contesting. In order to comply with this, Pawan has allocated tickets to turncoats who joined Janasena very recently but managed to get the tickets thanks to last-minute permutations.

Vallabhaneni Balashouri, who got the JSP MP ticket for the Machilipatnam parliament constituency joined the party after leaving YSR Congress only a few months ago. The same is the case with Arani Srinivasulu who also quit YCP to join JSP and readily got the Tirupati MLA ticket, leaving loyal JSP leader Kiran Royal bemused.

Mandali Buddha Prasad was announced as JSP candidate from Avanigadda. This announcement came just three days after he left TDP and joined JSP. Nimmaka Jayakrishna followed the same suit as he too joined JSP the same day as Mandali and managed to get JSP Palakonda ticket. Both these TDP leaders were given the tickets by Pawan Kalyan.

The case in Bhimavaram is very bemusing. TDP candidate Ramanjaneyulu who contested against Pawan himself in 2019 (Bhimavaram) joined JSP a few weeks ago and he was given the Bhimavaram MLA ticket.

Another YCP leader Konathala Ramakrishna managed to secure JSP Anakapalle MLA ticket. JSP’s Pendurthi candidate Panchakarla Ramesh is the biggest turncoat of all as he was prior with TDP before moving to YSR Congress and finally settled at JSP last year.

Janasena’s Railway Kodur candidate Arava Sridhar has TDP roots and he too joined JSP only recently.

While political defections are a part and parcel of the modern-day political scene, JSP has allocated nearly 35% of its tickets to turncoats. But at the same time, there is a parallel argument that it might be better to field financially able turncoats who actually stand a chance in the election than fielding random contestants just for the sake of it, considering the gravity of this year’s election.