Praja Rajyam no more......... Chiru ban gaya Cong-man....

Hi folks,

A strange sense of foreboding it was, till a few months ago, a feeling that turned into a sense of 'deja vu' Feb 06 this year when Praja Rajyam President K. Chiranjeevi actually announced his move to merge with the Congress.

Then followed an official representation to the Election Commission of India, with the required enclosures that included a party resolution and an acceptance from the Congress high command too.

And on the evening of June 13 (no, it wasnt a Friday though) , but Monday, news came that the Election Commission had issued a notification freezing the Rising Sun symbol and removing the Praja Rajyam Party from the list of recognised political parties. To put it simply, but painfully - Praja Rajyam is no more, or in desi slang "Chiru ban gaya Cong-man".

For more on this, a while later, but following is what I actually filed for my newspaper.......

The Election Commission of India on Monday approved the merger of the Praja Rajyam Party with the Congress and issued a notification to this effect.

When contacted, senior leader of the Praja Rajyam and Member of the Legislative Council, C. Ramachandraiah said they had received a one-page letter from the EC giving the go-ahead, referring to the Praja Rajyam’s representation seeking to merge with the Congress.

The EC has declared the process of merger complete. Accordingly, the party’s symbol of the Rising Sun has been frozen and the name ‘Praja Rajyam Party’ removed from the list of political parties, the MLC said. It is learnt that the notification was sent to the Chief Electoral Officer of the State, Bhanwarlal, with a copy marked to the Praja Rajyam. The party in turn is likely to submit the copy of the merger notification to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and the Chairman of the Legislative Council here.

It may be recalled that the Praja Rajyam was launched with a bang at Tirupati on August 26, 2008 and contrary to expectations of coming to power, ended up with a tally of 18, including party President K. Chiranjeevi, in the general elections of 2009. However, it garnered an impressive vote share of about 18 per cent.

Film producer and Mr. Chiranjeevi’s brother-in-law Allu Aravind, who was the then General Secretary of the Praja Rajyam had declared before the elections, that they were confident of riding to power. But he drew flak for saying that they would like to win only 292 of the 294 seats in Andhra Pradesh, leaving voters in the two remaining Assembly segments cursing themselves why they did not exercise their franchise in favour of the ‘Megastar’.

A few months ago, the actor-turned-politician had on February 6, 2011, announced the decision to merge with the Congress, saying the move would take him a step closer to the objective of achieving social justice.

The announcement had its share of reactions from different leaders from within the party and outside, all of them seniors with long political experience. Some have rejected it outright, most of them announced that they were with Mr. Chiranjeevi.. The other political parties though, termed the PRP as a ‘flop’ movie.

(eom)