Modi's bonhomie with 'Mega brothers'

Vijayawada: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and brothers Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan had a moment after N Chandrababu Naidu's swearing-in ceremony, in Vijayawada on Wednesday.

After the oath-taking, Pawan Kalyan requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi meet his elder brother, megastar Chiranjeevi.

Not only Modi fulfilled his wish, but in his trademark style, he raised the hands of the 'Mega brothers' and greeted the public.

This gesture by Modi felt as if he was sending a message to the Andhra electorate. In recent times, Pawan Kalyan has emerged as a game-changer in Andhra politics.

At a time when the morale of the party workers was at an all-time low, Pawan Kalyan's support and announcement in September last year to align with the TDP for the polls while Naidu was lodged in the jail provided the TDP with much-needed impetus.

He was also instrumental in bringing the BJP into the alliance and the rest as they say is history.

Kapus, the community to which Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan belong, constitutes almost 15 per cent of Andhra’s electorate.

In the 2024 polls, almost the entire numerically strong Kapu community voted for the NDA alliance in Andhra due to the Pawan Kalyan factor. The BJP has been wooing Kapus, a major vote bank, and has been patronising Pawan Kalyan for some time.

In January, the BJP-led Narendra Modi government announced Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award, to Chiranjeevi, confirming the saffron party’s tryst with the cinema and entertainment industry to gain some foothold in the Telugu states as part of its ‘Look South’ policy.

Over the course of an illustrious film career spanning more than four decades, Chiranjeevi, affectionately known as Chiru, has starred in over 150 Telugu feature films, along with some films in Hindi, Tamil, and Kannada. He received the Padma Bhushan in 2006.

While Chiranjeevi’s younger brother Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena is an ally of the BJP, the megastar had to cut short his political career as he merged his Praja Rajyam party with the Congress in 2011.
After Praja Rajyam’s merger, Congress sent Chiranjeevi to Rajya Sabha and made him union tourism minister in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet during UPA II.

In the last few years, Prime Minister Modi has been giving utmost importance to Chiranjeevi. He was among the very few Tollywood celebrities to receive an invitation to attend the consecration ceremony at the Lord Sri Ram temple in Ayodhya.