Telugu megastar Pawan Kalyan demanded special status for Andhra Pradesh.
Telugu megastar Pawan Kalyan, who is also referred to as 'Power Star' locally, has joined an all-out fight demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh.
Evoking Telugu pride, the Jana Sena Party founder slammed both centre and state government for not fulfilling the special status promise.
Addressing the mega rally in Tirupati's Indira Maidanam, the 44-year-old said, "We are not begging or asking for alms. Andhra Pradesh is asking for its rights."
Lashing out at PM Narendra Modi, Mr Kalyan even advised PM and his party not to use the slogan of cow protection to diver the nation's attention from important issues.
"If you want cow protection, let each of your party worker adopt a cow but don't use cow and cow meat to divert the nation's attention from crucial issues," Mr Kalyan said.
Popularly called 'Power Star', Mr Kalyan criticised Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu for taking a soft stance vis-a-vis the centre on the issue.
"All MPs from Andhra Pradesh should stall and paralyse parliament demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh," he said.
Mr Kalyan also took on union minister Venkaiah Naidu, pointing out that in 2014, Mr Naidu had promised special status to Andhra Pradesh for 15 years in parliament. But now he says nothing is to be achieved with special status.
The Jana Sena founder said he would launch the campaign for Andhra special status with a public meeting on September 9. He said if nothing was done to meet their demand, the party will launch protest on streets.
However, there is lot of speculation as to why Mr Kalyan chose this time to hold such a mega rally against the central and state government.
Mr Pawan, had in fact, come to Tirupati to call on the family of his fan Vinod Rayal, who was stabbed to death at Kolar in Karnataka three days ago in a brawl with fans of Jr NTR.
Saturday's rally is being seen as a political stepping stone for a more serious role in politics in 2019.
Pawan Kalyan launched his Jana Sena in March, 2014 and backed the BJP-TDP combine. He had even campaigned for them, bringing with him his fans and Kapu votes.