Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan's remarks have pushed Telangana sentiment back to the centre of the state's political discourse, drawing sharp condemnation from parties and activists across the spectrum. The Jana Sena Party (JSP) chief's press conference at his Jubilee Hills residence in Hyderabad on 2 June 2025 — held after police denied permission for his planned Telangana Formation Day meeting — has only deepened the row.

What Pawan Kalyan said

The actor-politician reportedly remarked that ‘regionalism is worse than terrorism' and warned that ‘if the issue is not addressed, tomorrow they may refuse to sing Vande Mataram and Jana Gana Mana'. He also drew flak for telling Telangana critics that the state was ‘not the jagir (fiefdom) of their father'.

Barring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — a Jana Sena ally — every major party has hit out at the Deputy CM over the comments.

How the row began

The flashpoint dates to last month, when political analyst and former MLC Professor K. Nageshwar claimed during a television debate that Pawan Kalyan, in his meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, had demanded the arrest of YSR Congress Party leader and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. Nageshwar also reportedly suggested Shah had described the BJP-TDP-JSP alliance as ‘temporary' while calling Jagan a ‘long-term friend'.

After Jana Sena denied the claims and threatened legal action, Nageshwar withdrew his remarks. Andhra Pradesh Police, however, registered multiple FIRs against him for allegedly promoting enmity, intentional insult, spreading false information and criminal conspiracy. Telangana Police later provided him security at his residence.

Permission denied, tempers flare

Jana Sena had sought Cyberabad police clearance to hold the ‘Telangana Nava Nirmana Sankalpa Sabha' at a Gachibowli convention centre, citing an expected turnout of 2,000. The police rejected the request, citing a ‘substantial threat' to law and order and noting that recent utterances by Andhra leaders had ‘deeply hurt the sentiments of the people of Telangana'. The Telangana High Court declined relief on the party's House Motion petition.

Hours before the rejection, Telangana's Minister for Transport and Backward Classes Welfare Ponnam Prabhakar demanded that Pawan Kalyan apologise for his earlier ‘evil eye' remark — a reference to the actor-politician's reported claim that if Telangana people cast an eye, the coconut trees of Konaseema would wither. The Congress minister also recalled Pawan Kalyan's purported statement that he would stop eating for 11 days if Telangana was formed.

Opposition response

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Working President K.T. Rama Rao said Telangana ‘needs no lessons of patriotism' from Pawan Kalyan. ‘We respect him as the Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. We admire him as an artist and as an actor. If he visits us as a brother, we will treat him with a Hyderabadi biryani but if he attempts to assert his dominance in our politics, we will not stand for it,' he said, recalling the 60-year struggle that culminated in statehood in 2014.

Responding to the ‘jagir' jibe, KTR said Telangana was ‘definitely the jagir of the sons of the soil of Telangana'. On Jana Sena's plan to contest elections in the state, he said any citizen could form a party under the Constitution, but a leader contesting from a state ‘should respect the aspirations of the people, their struggles and sacrifices'.

What's next

With Cinematography Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy having warned in December that Pawan Kalyan's films could be blocked from Telangana theatres absent an apology, the stand-off now threatens to spill from politics into the box office. Jana Sena's stated push into Telangana elections will test whether the actor-politician can repair the breach — or whether the sentiment war hardens into a longer electoral fault line.