India - Chiru promises 80% tickets to freshers

HYDERABAD: Over 80 per cent of Prajarajyam members will be non-politicians and only 10-20 per cent of the partymen will be existing politicians and political workers. By implication then, 80 per cent of the tickets to be given by the party in the forthcoming elections will be to “freshmen”. In an exclusive chat with TOI on Sunday morning —the first with any publication after the Tirupati meeting —party president Chiranjeevi said that he was seeking a paradigm shift in the politics of Andhra Pradesh and that is why his emphasis would be on fresh blood. “When I see legislators and leaders hurling abuses and heaping scorn on each other in the Assembly and outside I get disgusted. And in this I think I reflect the views of the majority of the denizens of AP,” Chiranjeevi said. “I do not want to conduct my political affairs in this fashion. I want to give respect to politics,” he added. Chiranjeevi declared that his party is going to be a social justice party which will usher in a new order where the talented but downtrodden people who are “not getting a chance” in the existing scheme of things will be able to showcase their potential and realise them.” I have met thousands of people after my Tirupati meeting and they are displeased with the present scenario. Especially upset are the youth,” said Chiranjeevi. “These youth and the downtrodden people would be able to see a ‘ray of hope’ in Prajarajyam,” the megastar said, sitting across a round table at a small conference room in his party headquarters even as he nursed a bad cold. “I am impressed with the concept of gram swarajya and the aim of our party will be to create livelihood for people and stop this enmasse migration to the cities,” the Prajarajyam party president said. “We will certainly be pro-poor and these are not mere words. We will strive to reduce the gap between the poor and the rich and will work so that everyone has access to education and health,” he said. The actor would embark on his much talked about “roadshow” pretty soon and this will be a yatra that will take him to all the three regions of the state. It is going to be a continuous yatra by road, with only some small breaks that might be required to address some urgent matters elsewhere, the neo-politician said. Before that there would be a simultaneous “flag hoisting’ ceremony in each district of the state. “This will be a signal of solidarity of the cadres of the party across the state, a move that will bring in a sense of oneness and unity of purpose,” the actor said. Large scale formal enrolment into the party will soon begin and aspirants would have to fill up a form for the purpose. The applications will have to be cleared by district committee of the party. This lengthy procedure is being introduced to keep track of the kind of people entering Prajarajyam. Party members would be of two kinds: permanent and active members. “The active members would be given tasks to do for the party,” Chiranjeevi said. On the issue of alliances with like-minded political parties at the national level, Chiranjeevi said that no party had approached him for a tie-up. He seemed to indicate that he was yet to give serious thought to a pre-election national alliance. But he was willing to tie-up— post elections —with any secular party whose “ideas are close to our ideas.” He emphasized that Prajarajyam would strive to carry along all communities —Hindus, Muslims and Christians.