Chiru wants merger function to be held in Tirupati

Friendly match:Praja Rajyam president and MLA K. Chiranjeevi and MP Chinta Mohan at the inauguration of a badminton court in Tirupati on Thursday.

TIRUPATI: With the Election Commission clearing the decks for the merger of Praja Rajyam Party with the Congress, the PRP-founder and Tirupati legislator K. Chiranjeevi said he was keen on having the ‘merger' ceremony at Tirupati itself.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday before rounding-off his two-day visit to Tirupati and Tirumala, Chiranjeevi made no secret of his strong desire to have the merger function at Tirupati as it was from the temple city that he had launched his ‘Praja Rajyam Party' amid a lot of pomp and splendour.

In fact it was from Tirupati that the mega star who metamorphosed into a politician after launching of his PRP, had not only contested his maiden election but also rather ironically wrested the seat from the same Congress into which he would now be migrating along with his party colleagues.

As such it is only logical that Chiranjeevi is inclined to have the merger programme at Tirupati. He however hastened to add that he was leaving the decision to the Congress high command.

Asked about how he justified the merger, more so after he had launched his party on an anti-Congress plank and to fight for ‘social justice' which the Congress had allegedly ignored, he said the Congress was now a ‘changed party'. There is a significant shift in its programmes and perspectives especially towards social justice and its determination to fight against corruption.

He also sought to drive it home that the merger was not a ‘total sell out' but a win-win situation to the PRP. It is not a small issue if a party with a 17% vote share merges with another, he said.