Chiranjeevi’s political arangetram gets everyone dancing

Astrologers fault his stars, while star-struck politicians ready to defect to him

HYDERABAD:Politicians, astrologers and numerologists are vying with each other to forecast the future of Tollywood megastar Chiranjeevi who has kept his arangetram into the political theatre of Andhra Pradesh on hold.

While BSP leader and UP chief minister Mayawati gave up on the actor last weekend, after he gave her the slip by boarding a flight to Chennai to avoid sharing the same platform with her, various political parties are falling over each other to catch his attention.

But it is not just politicians, the planetary stars are also in a tussle, say astrologers. According to prominent Andhra astrologer Srinivas Gargeya, the film star is going through a planetary turmoil thanks to Sadesaathi (Saturn’s seven and a half year cycle), just like Amitabh Bachchan.

“The film star is embroiled in controversies like his daughter Srija’s elopement, his father’s death, brother’s divorce case, all as a result of the Sadesaathi,” Gargeya said.

Chiranjeevi belongs to the same planetary groups as those of BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee. His tide will turn only after April 22nd, he said, adding that he should choose Swayam Krushi (self help), the title of his block buster film, as the party name, and “two eyes” as the symbol.

Numerologist Mudigonda Gopikrishna said Chiranjeevi was passing through a bad phase since August 2 and is likely to come out of the Kalasarpa yogam (a type of planetary alignment) only after January end.

“The present crisis over his political party and the delays of his brother’s film Apada Mokkulavadu, which has been stalled, is also because of his bad stars,” he said. The film is now slated to be released in over 100 theatres later this month and portrays Chiranjeevi as a good samaritan and saviour of the last resort, something like Lord Balaji of Tirupati, says director Posani Murali Krishna.

Political parties too have not been spared the jitters over Chiranjeevi’s impending entry into politics. The likely regrouping of the Kapu community, which constitutes 19 per cent of the total vote in the state, will pose a major setback to the Congress and the TDP in coastal Andhra region.

The Kapu community dominates East and West Godavari districts, which together form the major chunk of seats in the state legislature. “Whichever party bagged the maximum seats in East Godavari always ruled the state,” said the Congress leader and state minister Jakkampudi Ram Mohan Rao who hails from Rajahmundry.

The actor’s imminent entry into politics has already ruffled feathers in the Congress with senior MP from Narsapur, Chegondi Hariram Jogaiah, dubbing Chiranjeevi as the future chief minister of the state.

The statement earned him the wrath of the high command and he was summoned to Delhi. In TDP as well as in Congress, backward caste and Kapu leaders are waiting for the mist to clear so that they can ride on the winning horse for 2009 state polls.

As many as 25 MLAs and MPs are said to be ready to jump the fence.

Chiranjeevi has over 350 films to his credit with around 25 films in other Indian languages, including Hindi. His political entry was put off in 2004 due to his income tax problems, while he has been dilly-dallying since the last six months this time round.

His fans have already been contesting local body and cooperative elections under a banner-Chiru party-and winning many seats as well. His fans organised several primary conventions in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Rajahmundry and Eluru in December to whip up a cheer campaign till the actor finally intervened and advised them to wait till he made up his mind.