Poll dancing steams up Andhra campaign

By M H Ahssan

Malaika Arora’s pole dance in Kaante may have been hot but this summer, it’s the ‘poll dance’ that is generating heat in Andhra Pradesh. From Sonia Gandhi to local politicians, everyone’s shaking a leg. The netas may later have everyone dancing to their tune but for now, the janta is getting an eyeful.

The Telangana factor in the coming elections may have Sonia worrying about vote swings but last week when she kickstarted her campaign at a hugely attended public meeting at Kothagudem in Khammam, she decided to dance. Linking her arms with local tribals, Sonia matched their steps even as an exuberant Union minister for women and child development Renuka Chowdhury tried to physically pull CM Y S Rajasekhara Reddy into the celebration.

Roja, who sizzled on screen in her earlier avatar as a filmstar, did some of her own hip shaking at a public meeting a week ago. The 36-year-old Telugu Mahila chief, who was pleased with the crowd reaction to her dancing, was, however, in for a shock as Mahila wing chiefs of other parties — principally the Praja Rajyam — berated her for indecency.

This even though Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) president Chiranjeevi himself is not averse to a poll jig. On a tour of Mahbubnagar district earlier this week, the megastar could could not resist the invitation to dance. There were no glamourous heroines around him but dance he did in the summer heat and with the local women of Sarvareddypalli.

Chiranjeevi’s brother Pavan Kalyan, who heads the youth wing of the party, is all fire and brimstone when he is delivering his political speeches and hitting out at rival parties, but when he hit the dance floor in Karimnagar, he was determined to break a leg. But not everyone liked the act. “He drank toddy and danced like a monkey,” Roja remarked about Pavan Kalyan.

It is not just the filmy crowd in politics and Congress leaders who are finding the urge to dance irresistible. Even the otherwise straightlaced Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu loosened up earlier this week to dance with tribal women at the party office in Hyderabad.

The other day, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader and former minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy (of not insignificant girth) and Warangal MP Ravindra Naik were unstoppable when they danced at a party meet. With so many netas dancing, Nach Baliye, the dance reality show on TV, may decide to rope in some politicians next season.