Thaindian News

Hyderabad, April 10 (IANS) Spate of resignations by the leaders of the Praja Rajyam Party has shocked its president and matinee idol Chiranjeevi but he is still confident of coming to power in Andhra Pradesh.
The actor-turned-politician Friday addressed a news conference, a day after party general secretary and spokesman Prakala Prabhakar quit, making serious allegations against the top leadership.

“Our party will welcome those who want to come and will give a send-off to those who want to leave,” he said, reacting to the series of resignations by party cadres during the last few days.

“Are you still in the party?” he asked party spokesman Mitra in a lighter vein when the latter came to sit beside him.

“Do you have any doubt?” asked Mitra.

“It is not known who and when will give the shock,” remarked Chiranjeevi.

The remarks are significant as Mitra is also reportedly unhappy with the style of functioning of Chiranjeevi and his brother-in-law and party general Allu Aravind.

Chiranjeevi said internal differences were common for any party but felt that such sweeping allegations should not be made. “If they make such allegations, they will be the losers,” he said while denying that the party had sold assembly and Lok Sabha tickets to the aspirants.

“Let somebody tell me how many businessmen, contractors and industrialists were given tickets by our party,” he said while pointing out that the party fielded 35.4 percent of candidates from the backward classes.

He claimed this was the highest number of backward castes candidates fielded by any party in India’s history.

Chiru, as he is popularly known, said the tickets were allotted to candidates after three surveys conducted by the party.

While Allu Aravind was emotional in his reaction to Prabhakar’s allegations, Chiru was calm and cool.

“Praja Rajyam is a miracle tree, which gives something to everybody,” he said on Prabhakar’s remark that the party has become a “poisonous tree”.

The megastar was confident that his party would come to power, claiming that it had people’s support.

He also announced that the party would launch “rail yatra” from Secunderabad railway station Saturday. “The aim of this yatra is to take our election symbol (rail engine) to people,” he said.