Hyderabad:
Chiranjeevi, who ruled the silver screen for many years, now hopes he will get to play his dream role in real life - as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
The move to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh to create Telangana has thrown up changes that might just place the megastar in a position of advantage as the Congress scouts for a Chief Minister till the state elections due by May.
The party's Kiran Kumar Reddy resigned last week to protest against the division of the state.
When Chiranjeevi launched his Praja Rajyam Party in August 2008 and then made his electoral debut in 2009, he managed to get an impressive almost 16 per cent of the vote share. Not only because of his celebrity, but because he spoke about social justice and was backed by the Kapu community to which he belongs. Kapus make up a big 19 per cent of the population of undivided Andhra Pradesh.
The actor has dreamed of being Chief Minister since then.
In a film fraternity dominated by screen heroes from another prominent community, the Kammas, Chiranjeevi had managed to break their stranglehold and emerge as the first very successful non-Kamma hero. Can he now do the same in the traditionally Reddy-dominated Congress party to be its first Kapu chief minister?
The Congress needs a non-controversial Chief Minister to oversee bifurcation and also help salvage some ground in the Seemandhra region that will form the residuary state when Telangana is carved out. The people of the region are angry about the decision to split the state and the Congress is expected to bear the brunt.
Disillusionment with the Congress, the powerful Reddys and the backward castes and SC/ST voters seem to have veered towards Jagan Reddy and his YSR Congress.
This will make the Kapu vote important for Congress; the community will be a very significant 27 per cent in the residuary state.
The Congress does have other prominent Kapu leaders like Botsa Satyanarayana, who is the Andhra Pradesh Congress chief and Kanna Laxminarayana who was a senior minister in the Kiran Kumar Reddy cabinet, but Chiranjeevi's chances are said to be bright.