With 100% strike rate, Jana Sena Party achieves unprecedented feat in Andhra Pradesh

With 100% strike rate, Jana Sena Party achieves unprecedented feat in Andhra Pradesh. JSP president Pawan Kalyan’s steadfastness since forming the party a decade ago, and despite his humiliating defeat in the 2019 elections and the YSRCP leaders, right from the top, describing him as a ‘package star’ and stooping too low as to comment on his marital life, have all helped the party win its pride of place in the NDA alliance.

The Jana Sena Party (JSP) couldn’t have asked for a better verdict in the general elections as it achieved the targeted “100% strike rate” by winning all the 21 Assembly constituencies and both the Lok Sabha (LS) seats it contested, a feat no other regional party could accomplish in the history of Andhra Pradesh.

JSP president K. Pawan Kalyan was expecting the strike rate to be around 98%, but then he might have rubbed his eyes in disbelief on seeing the exceptional mandate received by his party.

It has been a decade since the JSP was formed, and a defeat in the just-concluded elections could have precipitated an existential crisis, but things worked quite well for the party and its allies — TDP and BJP.

The YSRCP leaders, right from the top, mocked the JSP president, describing him as a “package star,” and stooped to the extent of commenting on his marital life. But, he persevered with the malicious attacks, and at times hit back at those making the below-the- belt remarks. Besides, he remained steadfast despite the electoral debacle of 2019.

The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) had called the alliance opportunistic and insisted that by reviving his friendship with the BJP, TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu took a U-turn and he remains an unreliable partner.

Criticism against Mr. Naidu too went personal as some YSRCP MLAs purportedly made derogatory comments on his family on the Floor of the Legislative Assembly, prompting him to swear to return to the House only as Chief Minister.

But all those evidently boomeranged to such an effect that the YSRCP notched up dismal tallies of four seats in the Lok Sabha and 11 in the Legislative Assembly compared to a record 22 and 151 respectively in 2019.