Hyderabad: Film actor and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Nandamuri Balakrishna on Friday took oath as a member of the House, in Amaravati along with actor Pawan Kalyan from the Jana Sena Party. Balakrishna won the election from the Hindupur assembly seat, which was earlier contested by his father, TDP founder NT Rama Rao. On the other hand, another Telugu superstar Pawan Kalyan, the president of the Janasena Party (JSP) and a Pithapuram MLA, who has been appointed Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Panchayat Raj, Rural Development, Environment, Forests, Science and Technology, and Rural Water Supply entered the assembly for the first time.
Talking about Balakrishna, his win can be accredited to the Hindupur assembly seat as it is a stronghold for TDP. This seat is considered a bastion of the TDP, and Balakrishna has won it for the third time. However, his win was bland this time since it was considerably way less than his previous two elections. Balakrishna won this seat by a significant margin of 81,543 votes in 2014, and in 2019, despite the 'Jagan wave', he won by 91,704 votes, but this time his victory margin was only 31,602 votes, which is nearly two-thirds less than the previous two elections.