Click to play videoHyderabad: Political first timer and Telugu mega star Chiranjeevi has used his star power to pull huge crowds of supporters but will the star appeal be enough to get votes?
To the question, do you have a message for the present Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S R Reddy? Chiranjeevi's answer is: “Take rest for the next five years and then for your lifetime."
It’s a tough message but to turn it into reality Chiranjeevi needs to do what the legendary film star N T Rama Rao did in 1982 – turn star appeal into a dramatic political victory, when NTR's Telugu Desam routed the Congress – but will it happen for Chiranjeevi in 2009?
Meanwhile, Chiranjeevi is quite confident that the crowds turning into votes.
The mega star would have ideally liked a political ally to complement the star appeal but the left and the Telengana Rashtrya Samiti decided to go with Chandrababu Naidu's TDP forming a grand alliance.
Chiranjeevi hopes that his starategy of appeasing the backward castes by fielding 104 BC candidates in the 292 assembly seats and fielding SC and ST candidates in general seats could reap dividends.
He also hopes that the Kappu community that he belongs to would consolidate behind him. Divided into several sub sects, the Kappus form around 20 per cent of the population and are Andhra's biggest caste block. They are a forward community in a region seen as Chiranjeevi's best bet, North coastal Andhra Pradesh, but his biggest selling point remains being the mega star of Telugu cinema.
Can his star power pull him through or will his latest avtar (image) fail at the political box office, it's perhaps the biggest gamble of his life.
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