Chiranjeevi-Amar Singh meet raises questions

The Samajwadi party general secretary Amar Singh along with two actresses-MPs Jaya Prada and Jaya Bachchan came to the office of the Telugu megastar-turned politician Chiranjeevi in Hyderabad on Sunday evening, spent close to one hour and went back leaving a lot of questions unanswered.

Though Amar Singh left no stone unturned to give the impression that the meeting was a courtesy call by friends and well wishers to congratulate Chiranjeevi on his entry in to politics, the lingering feeling in the political circles was that there was more to the meeting than meets the eye.

"We came here to extend our good wishes to Chiranjeevi on his move to come in to politics. Good people who have a spirit to serve the society should come and join politics. Otherwise politics will remain corrupt and filthy," Amar Singh said after meeting the actor.

Singh insisted that he along with Jaya Prada and Jaya Bachchan came to meet Chiranjeevi because he was a good friend of the entire Bachchan family. "if Amitabhji was not out of the country, he would have also come along with Abhishek and Aishwarya," Amar Singh said.

He pointed out that Jaya Prada played the role of heroine with Chiranjeevi in many Telugu films and Jaya Bachchan was also a good friend of Chiranjeevi. "They came to extend their good wishes as a colleague of film industry. We want all our friends to do well in whatever they do," he said.

But the crucial issue of possible electoral tie up between Samajwadi Party and Chranjeevi's Praja Rajyam party remained unanswered as Amar Singh evaded them completely. When asked how SP could join hands with the anti-Congress Chiranjeevi in Andhra while they were allies in Uttar Pradesh, Amar Singh quipped, "I am not a member of Congress".

He insisted that the talks between Congress and SP for an alliance were restricted to Uttar Pradesh and they were still not completed. "We want that we should have an alliance but it still not sure whether will finally have it or not", he said. At the same time Amar Singh said that his party will never support "communal forces like BJP" and help them to come to power. "That is why we have supported the Congress party on Nuclear deal in Parliament. The deal does not belong to any one party but to the entire country," he said.

Prakala Prabhakar, official spokesperson of the Praja Rajyam party also insisted that the meeting was a mere courtesy call. "We are not trying to hide any thing," he said adding that the SP leaders had come neither to seek something nor to give any thing.

"When people are with us, where is the need for an alliance with other parties," he said when asked whether SP was trying to forge an alliance with his party.

But the speculations persists that a person like Amar Singh does not take the trouble of coming all the way to Hyderabad for mere sweet talk when the political tempers are running so high in Andhra Pradesh.

"The SP is either angling for space in Andhra Pradesh politics or using the  Chiranjeevi's card to turn up the heat on the Congress party," a political observer said.