Chiranjeevi forays into politics

HYDERABAD: Standing under pictures of Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, B R Ambedkar and Jyotibha Phule whose teachings he said had transformed him, Telugu megastar Chiranjeevi on Sunday announced his entry into politics and said his main opponent was neither the Congress nor TDP, but poverty. ( Watch ) "I am neither a leftist nor a rightist, I am a humanist," the actor said bidding adieu to his "30-year-long pleasure trip in the movie world". Chiranjeevi promised to unveil his political agenda, policies and programme on August 26 at a public meeting at Tirupati. The actor, who turns 53 on Friday, said he would work for a "cheerful" Andhra Pradesh. Conducting the press conference all by himself, unassisted by aides, the megastar avoided giving direct answers to the volley of questions directed at him by a huge assembly of mediapersons who had descended on his office to attend his maiden news conference. On several issues like the precise reasons for kickstarting a political party, his views on a separate Telangana state, the issue of Naxalism, on the relevance of Congress and TDP, Chiranjeevi parried replies saying they were "sensitive issues" and he would react at an "appropriate time". Asked how many seats he expected to win in the next elections, Chiranjeevi said: "I'm not entering politics for power or for office but for social service. Social justice and welfare for poor would be high on my agenda." Pressed on how he would react to difficult issues, Chiranjeevi said his sensitivity would be his strength. "Being sensitive, I can understand the pain of the people better than the present day politicians." Though indicating that his would be a party inclined to social welfare, Chiranjeevi made no reference to inflation or other serious issues of confronting the state like mindless destruction of the environment, uprooting of people by big projects and problems faced by the rural poor. Chiranjeevi, in true filmy style, referred to two suicide notes — one by a home guard and another by an IT couple who lamented that they were embracing death without having got a chance to vote for him. He also referred to the call given by former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam to professionals to enter politics said that this had influenced him. He also bowed his head before intellectuals, artists, women and students, who had urged him to join politics and declared that it would be a blunder not to respond to their invitation. Interestingly, Chiranjeevi paid rich tributes to NT Rama Rao,the founder of Telugu Desam Party, for having inspired him in more than one way. True to his non controversial nature, on the two major parties Congress and TDP he said, "Everybody is doing work in their own way. But, we want take that further to the grassroot level, and do things in a