Jana Sena Party (JSP) chief and actor Pawan Kalyan on Tuesday, March 18, announced that Uday Srinivas Tangella, founder of the popular chain of tea shops, Tea Time, as the party’s candidate for the Kakinada Lok Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh. Pawan Kalyan made the announcement at a meeting with the party leaders from the Pithapuram Assembly constituency at the party office in Mangalagiri.

The Jana Sena leader earlier announced the decision to contest for the Assembly from Pithapuram. He said that if Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah asked him to contest for the Lok Sabha, he would enter the fray from the Kakinada Lok Sabha seat while Srinivas will contest from Pithapuram. Asserting that Srinivas made many sacrifices for him, Pawan Kalyan urged the party leaders to ensure his victory with a huge majority.

Srinivas, a businessman, is the founder and owner of Tea Time, a chain of retail tea-selling outlets. Pithapuram is one of the Assembly segments in the Kakinada Lok Sabha constituency and Pawan Kalyan has promised that he would develop it as a model constituency if he is elected as MLA. According to reports, there are over 90,000 voters from the Kapu community in Pithapuram which may have influenced Pawan Kalyan, also a Kapu, to contest from there. Srinivas said he would take the responsibility of Pawan Kalyan’s victory from Pithapuram. 

Jana Sena is contesting the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the TDP and the BJP. Under the seat-sharing agreement among three parties, 21 Assembly and two Lok Sabha seats have been allotted to it.

Simultaneous elections to the 175-member Assembly and all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state are scheduled to be held on May 13.