Chiranjeevi metamorphoses into a politician

After having kept everyone guessing for over 10 months now, Chiranjeevi formally announced his entry into politics on Sunday. He will be the second film star after the late Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR) to launch his own political party

TELUGU MEGA star Chiranjeevi turned into a politician on Sunday (August 17). At the time of filing the story, he was yet to announce the launch of his new political party after having kept everyone guessing for over 10 months now.
He is the second film star after the legendary Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR), to launch his own political party in Andhra Pradesh. Of course, Chiranjeevi pales in comparison with NTR in every respect.
Chiranjeevi starred in 148 films, including three Hindi films, in a career spanning exactly 30 years. For over 20 years now he has remained the number one of Telugu film industry and acquired a larger-than-life image. He was a recipient of Padma Bhushan from the government of India in 2006.
A mammoth public meeting is being organised in the holy town of Tirupati on August 26, where Chiranjeevi will formally announce the name of his political outfit as well as the agenda, besides unveiling the party flag.
In fact, there had been anticipation of Chiranjeevi’s political entry ever since 1993, when he was at the peak of his film career, with several major hits to his credit. However, Chiranjeevi used to simply brush aside all talk of his political ambitions.
The star, however, took up social service activities like blood donation and eye donation through his Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust (CCT) and won acclaim from several quarters. He also was part of the Heroes AIDS awareness campaign along with Kamal Hassan and Hollywood actor Richard Gere. These activities have endeared him to the masses and made him an icon-of-sorts.
Talk of Chiranjeevi’s political entry gained credence late last year following his reported meeting with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) leaders of the state. But the Chiranjeevi camp maintained a stoic silence over the issue and cleverly let a hype build up over the actor’s prospective moves.
As it was, Chiranjeevi was also bogged down with his own set of domestic problems – his youngest daughter Srija’s marriage much against his wish and the death of his father Venkata Rao. His brothers – actors Nagendra Babu and Pavan Kalyan – had taken the responsibility to get a feel of the people’s pulse in case Chiranjeevi took to politics. The calculated moves have reportedly yielded the requisite ’positive’ feedback to the Chiranjeevi camp, which then stepped up the efforts to launch the political party, ahead of the next general elections.
As days passed and the suspense over Chiranjeevi’s moves continued, many leaders from other parties like the Telugu Desam and the Congress started ’migrating’ towards the Chiru (Chiranjeevi) camp.
In July, Chiranjeevi’s brother-in-law Allu Aravind announced that the former would indeed launch a political party in August. Confirming this, Chiranjeevi finally broke his silence last week and set Sunday as the ’muhurtam’ for the announcement. Someone rightly said that his entry into politics would add more colour to it.