BJP will suffer in Andhra if it fails to fulfill promises: Pawan Kalyan

Popular actor and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan on Thursday cautioned the BJP that it will suffer a setback in Andhra Pradesh if it fails to fulfill the promises made to the state.

After a nearly three-hour meeting with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, he told reporters that they discussed a few issues, including the special category status to the state.

He recalled that the special status was promised in parliament and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured the state that the promise will be fulfilled.

The actor said they would wait for the central government and Modi to act on the issue before chalking out their response.

Stating that he has no financial capacity to expand the Jana Sena, Pawan said he was discussing this with a few friends and well-wishers. He said if they find resources to expand the party, it would contest the 2019 elections.

The actor-turned-politician said he met Naidu to congratulate him on laying the foundation stone of new state capital Amaravati as he could not attend the ceremony held last month.

He said he brought to Naidu's notice various issues related to the state capital.

He advised Naidu not to focus only on the capital but pay attention to the development of other regions as well.

Reiterating his stand on land acquisition for development of Amaravati, he claimed that Naidu agreed not to forcibly acquire land from people.

The chief minister assured him that the government will take land only with the consent of land owners.

The actor also raised the issue of bauxite mining in tribal areas of Visakhapatnam district and wanted Naidu not to take any step which harm the interests of tribals.

Referring to the concerns of ribals, he said they should not be displaced for bauxite mining.

The state government last week issued orders allowing bauxite mining in agency areas of Visakhaptnam, triggering strong protest from tribals and the opposition parties.

Pawan said they did not discuss the coming elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.

Earlier, Andhra Pradesh Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas met the actor-turned politician in Hyderabad on Thursday morning and discussed the issues to come up at the meeting with Naidu, who is also the president of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

They later left for Vijayawada by a special aircraft. After landing at Gannavaram airport, Pawan drove straight to the chief minister's camp office.

The meeting between Pawan and Naidu lasted for nearly three hours. It assumed significance in view of some recent developments.

In September, the actor had visited some villages in the capital region in Guntur district to show solidarity with farmers refusing to part with their land.

Pawan had floated the Jana Sena on the eve of the 2014 general elections. The party did not contest the elections but he campaigned for the TDP-BJP alliance in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Pawan, the younger brother of superstar and Congress leader Chiranjeevi, is not happy with the BJP-led NDA for the delay in according special status to Andhra Pradesh.

In a series of tweets in August, Pawan had reminded Prime Minister Modi of his election promise to do justice to Andhra Pradesh.

Political observers say that in the wake of the BJP's crushing defeat in the Bihar elections, Naidu may mount pressure on Modi to grant special status and honour all other commitments made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.