Allu Aravind is Prajarajyam’s general secretary

Praja Rajyam chief, Mr K. Chiranjeevi, has nominated Mr Allu Aravind, his brother-in-law and filmmaker, as general secretary of the party on Saturday, in an attempt to strengthen it in the Rayalaseema-Andhra region.Mr B. Vedvyas, the present incumbent, has been drafted into the PRP’s political affairs committee, the party’s key policy making body. Nalgonda ST cell president, Mr Ramesh Naik, has been appointed party spokesman.Sources indicate that there could be more changes in the party, which has seen
defections to the TD and Congress, particularly in the Telangana region.Mr Aravind, once considered the heart and soul of the PR and its treasurer and general secretary, was sidelined after the party was made to bite the dust in the 2009 elections. He was charged with selling party tickets during the polls, an allegation that was vehemently denied by Mr Chiranjeevi. The PR got a meagre 18 seats. In the reshuffle that followed the polls, Mr Aravind and Mr Naga Babu, brother of Mr Chiranjeevi, were not given any posts.Though Mr Pawan Kalyan, Mr Chiranjeevi’s other brother, heads the Yuva Rajyam, the party’s youth wing, he has kept his distance from the party after the polls and did not attend the party’s plenary session at Visakhapatnam apparently due to film shooting commitments.

Both Mr Arvind and Mr Naga Babu attended.Mr Chiranjeevi is now focusing on strengthening the party in the Rayalaseema-Andhra region after the PRP supported a united Andhra instead of a separate Telangana. He took this decision weighing the party’s strength in both the regions. Out of the 18 party MLAs, 16 are from the Rayalaseema-Andhra region and only two are from Telangana – Mr Anil Kumar (Balakonda) and Mr Maheshwar Reddy (Nirmal).In a bid to regain his hold on these regions, Mr Chiranjeevi is undertaking a hectic tour of Coastal districts. He hopes to cash in on the declining image of the Telugu Desam whose failure to come clean on the Telangana issue has not gone down well.