Chiru Praja Rajyam in for name trouble

Hyderabad Aug. 28: Superstar Chiranjeevi had announced the name of his political party, Praja Rajayam, with much relish but it turns out that Mr Chenna Krishnaiah, an advocate of Kadapa, had filed an application with the Election Commission seeking the same name for his party three months ago. Chiranjeevi, however, exuded confidence that he would get the name and his crisis managers, Dr Mitra and Mr Allu Aravind, went into a huddle to sort out the issue. They also had a talk with the EC officials. The EC can use its discretion to decide on the issue and can even hold a hearing with both the applicants. Meanwhile, EC sources said the application submitted by Chiranjeevi for registration of Praja Rajyam was riddled with errors. Instead of the mandatory 100 signatories, it only has 88. Neither does it have photocopies of the electoral identity cards of the members.

Caste factor creeps into selection of venue

TIRUPATI: The temple town was carefully chosen as the launch pad of Chiranjeevi's party, keeping in mind the caste factor involved rather than the sentiment of Lord Venkateswara.

Unlike the Lord Venkateswara sentiment which film thespian and TDP founder N T Rama Rao espoused throughout his political career, Chiru chose the temple town also for the reason that Balijas (which is what Kapus are known in Rayalaseema) constitute a majority of the population in Tirupati. Nearly 62 per cent of Tirupati and about 70 per cent of Tirumala populace hail from this community . "Anything that is started at the foot of the Lord is said to be successful. Though this sentiment did weigh with Chiranjeevi, equally important is the large presence of Balijas here," an analyst said.