Prajarajyam to fight outside state too

Hyderabad Feb 19 :Chiranjeevi is planning to field Lok Sabha candidates in Telugu-dominated areas in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Maharashtra, where his movies draw huge crowds. His party, the Praja Rajyam, has identified 10 LS seats in Karnataka with box office collections of Chiranjeevi blockbusters as the barometer. The party is conducting surveys in the other states to locate more constituencies where it can convert the applause of audiences into votes.

“Our candidates will contest from Mysore, Bengaluru South, Bijapur, Kolar, Gulbarga, Bellary, Chikmagalur, Raichur, Chikballapur and Chitradurga parliamentary seats in Karnataka,” said Mr Swami Naidu, Praja Rajyam leader. Interestingly, even while trying to spread its influence outside the state, the Praja Rajyam has scaled down its ambitions in AP. The party had claimed earlier that it would win more than 250 seats in the Assembly polls.

In fact, Chiranjeevi’s brother-in-law, Mr Allu Arvind, went to the extent of saying that the party would win 292 seats, leaving Pulivendula for the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, and Kuppam for the TD chief, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu.

However, the Praja Rajyam leader, Mr Parkala Prabhakar, said the party would win 205 seats in the coming polls. He cited a recent survey conducted by the party as the base for the prediction, which is modest by Praja Rajyam standards. The survey conducted in 294 constituencies revealed that the party would win 80 seats in Telangana, 90 segments in coastal Andhra and 35 seats in Rayalaseema.