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Cine star and founder of Prajarajyam Party Chiranjeevi had a narrow escape when electrical wires bust into flames over his head during a campaign rally here on Wednesday.

Chiranjeevi was holding a road show asking votes for his party candidates in the upcoming Hyderabad Municipal election when the incident occurred.

The mega star was traveling in an open-top truck when the vehicle passed under dangling wires. A party worker tried to lift the wires with a rod, triggering a shower of electrical sparks.

People of the area have been complaining about the dangling wires for several days now and hope that this incident would make the authorities to notice of the problem.

Police in Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore district Saturday registered a case against actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi for allegedly violating the model code of conduct.

The Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) chief reportedly addressed a public meeting beyond 10 p.m., the time when campaigning has to stop.

Police said Chiranjeevi arrived late in the town and continued addressing a road show till 11 p.m. He reportedly did not stop even after the police intervention.

The police have also booked cases against local PRP leaders and candidates.

Meanwhile in Hyderabad, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi surrendered to the police Friday night after being accused of beating up a polling agent of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Thursday.

Owaisi, seeking re-election from the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency, surrendered at the Mogahlpura police station. He was immediately released on a personal bond and surety of Rs.10,000.

Owaisi, who had chased and thrashed the TDP agent with a stick for allegedly distributing money among voters, was booked for rioting, criminal trespass, unlawful assembly, voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons and disobedience to an order promulgated by a public servant.

Popular actors and other Telugu film personalities made a beeline to polling booths here to cast their votes for the first phase of parliamentary and assembly elections Thursday.

Leading the list was superstar Chiranjeevi, who is making his debut in state politics. Accompanied by wife Surekha, son and actor Ram Charan Teja and daughter Sushmita, the founder and president of Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) cast his vote.

“People want a change and I am sure they will support Praja Rajyam,” Chiranjeevi told reporters outside the polling booth.

His children were excited to participate in the poll process.

“This is a special feeling as we are casting our votes for a party founded by our father,” said Teja.

Young actor Allu Arjun, the son of PRP general secretary and Chiranjeevi’s brother-in-law Allu Aravind, also cast his vote. “Vote, vote, vote” was the slogan written on his T-shirt.

N. Balakrishna, a popular actor and leading campaigner for the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), also exercised his franchise in a polling booth in upmarket Jubilee Hills.

Balakrishna, son of TDP founder N.T. Rama Rao, campaigned for the party across the state.

NTR’s grandson and TDP’s star campaigner Junior NTR came to the polling centre on a stretcher as he is yet to recover from the injuries he sustained in a road accident during campaigning last month.

Another popular actor Nagarjuna and his wife Amla stood in queue at a polling booth in Jubilee Hills to cast their votes. Another popular face was actor Venkatesh.

Well-known producer, actor and Congress leader Dasari Narayan Rao and famous filmmaker D. Rama Naidu were among other prominent personalities who came out to vote.

With hardly any time left for the first phase of polling in Andhra Pradesh Thursday, the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) of Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi appears to be out of the race for power but may emerge as a king maker in the event of elections throwing up the state’s first-ever hung assembly.

In an indication of the shape of things to come, Chiranjeevi Sunday cancelled his meetings in Khammam and Nizamabad in the Telangana region due to poor public response.

Though a key region for any party to come to power, Telangana has not been the priority of the superstar. He is instead concentrating on coastal Andhra, the region he comes from.

Till last week, Chiranjeevi and his brothers – actors Pavan Kalyan and Naga Babu – held no road shows in Telangana, which sends 119 legislators to the 294-member assembly and accounts for 17 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The field reports also suggest that the party has no presence in Telangana, where the main fight is between ruling Congress party and the Grand Alliance led by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

The spate of resignations by leaders over the manner in which tickets for assembly and Lok Sabha elections were distributed and allegations made by Prakala Prabhakar while quitting as general secretary have already rattled the PRP, which was floated in August last year with the slogan of social justice.

Chiranjeevi, known as a sensitive person who finds it difficult to swallow criticism, was shaken by the events of the last few days, especially the resignation of Prabhakar, who claimed that the party leadership sold the tickets.

With nearly a million turnout at his first meeting at Tirupati on Aug 26 last year, the 54-year-old Chiranjeevi had taken the state politics by storm.

Political analysts had forecast that he would break the record of legendary actor N.T. Rama Rao, who came to power within nine months of launching the TDP in 1982.

But the party does not seem to be in the reckoning for power, if one goes by the field reports and the party’s campaign.

Political pundits said the failure of the actor to build the organisation was the main reason for the PRP not emerging as a serious contender for power.

“After the meeting at Tirupati, he did nothing for two months. He could have used this period to build the organisation. There is a leader at the top and there are followers, fans and well wishers at the bottom. There is no party structure in between,” said G. Chakrapani, a political expert.

Analysts said Chiranjeevi committed the mistake of admitting anybody quitting TDP and Congress into the party, instead of building new and young leadership at the grassroot level.

Despite exuding confidence of coming to power, Chiranjeevi appears to have sensed the public mood and reconciled to the situation. He is focussing only on coastal Andhra, especially on four districts where the Kapu community, to which he belongs, has considerable presence.

He is hoping for a good performance in East Godavari, Krishna and parts of north coastal Andhra besides his native district of West Godavari.

The actor is now said to be eyeing the role of king maker by winning as many assembly seats as possible in coastal Andhra. If his party bags 50 to 60 seats, it could hold the key for power in the event of a hung assembly, which looks possible with no wave in favour of any party.

A special train hired by actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party Saturday began its three-day journey from here to showcase its election symbol ‘rail engine’ to the people.

Chiranjeevi flagged off the train with 15 bogies at Secunderabad railway station.

With the first phase of polls to state assembly and Lok Sabha scheduled Thursday, the party has launched “praja rail yatra” to intensify its campaign.

Adding more glamour to the electioneering, young actors Ram Charan Teja and Allu Arjun along with dozens of television stars are travelling by the train. The party has organised programmes at different railway stations where the stars will interact with the local people.

Ram Charan Teja is the son of Chiranjeevi while Allu Arjun is the son of famous film producer Allu Aravind, who is brother-in-law of Chiranjeevi and Praja Rajyam’s general secretary.

Chiranjeevi also boarded the train here but got down in Warangal district for road shows in the Telangana region. Chiranjeevi’s brother and actors Naga Babu and Pavan Kalyan are already campaigning for the party.

Chiranjeevi said he did not want to rope in his son and his brother-in-law’s son for the campaign but the young actors volunteered to do their bit for the party.

Sitting in the train, the megastar said the party’s symbol signified its goal of social justice.

The train will cover several constituencies in north and south coastal Andhra districts, where the party is believed to be relatively strong.

Spate of resignations by the leaders of the Praja Rajyam Party has shocked its president and matinee idol Chiranjeevi but he is still confident of coming to power in Andhra Pradesh.

The actor-turned-politician Friday addressed a news conference, a day after party general secretary and spokesman Prakala Prabhakar quit, making serious allegations against the top leadership.

“Our party will welcome those who want to come and will give a send-off to those who want to leave,” he said, reacting to the series of resignations by party cadres during the last few days.

“Are you still in the party?” he asked party spokesman Mitra in a lighter vein when the latter came to sit beside him.

“Do you have any doubt?” asked Mitra.

“It is not known who and when will give the shock,” remarked Chiranjeevi.

The remarks are significant as Mitra is also reportedly unhappy with the style of functioning of Chiranjeevi and his brother-in-law and party general Allu Aravind.

Chiranjeevi said internal differences were common for any party but felt that such sweeping allegations should not be made. “If they make such allegations, they will be the losers,” he said while denying that the party had sold assembly and Lok Sabha tickets to the aspirants.

“Let somebody tell me how many businessmen, contractors and industrialists were given tickets by our party,” he said while pointing out that the party fielded 35.4 percent of candidates from the backward classes.

He claimed this was the highest number of backward castes candidates fielded by any party in India’s history.

Chiru, as he is popularly known, said the tickets were allotted to candidates after three surveys conducted by the party.

While Allu Aravind was emotional in his reaction to Prabhakar’s allegations, Chiru was calm and cool.

“Praja Rajyam is a miracle tree, which gives something to everybody,” he said on Prabhakar’s remark that the party has become a “poisonous tree”.

The megastar was confident that his party would come to power, claiming that it had people’s support.

He also announced that the party would launch “rail yatra” from Secunderabad railway station Saturday. “The aim of this yatra is to take our election symbol (rail engine) to people,” he said.

With just a week left for the elections in Andhra Pradesh, Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) Thursday suffered another major jolt with a key leader resigning and levelling allegations of corruption against the party.

Prakala Prabhakar, party spokesman and an intellectual face in the party, quit amid high drama. He handed over his resignation to the staff at the PRP office here and then launched a bitter attack on the leadership without naming anyone.

Alleging that the PRP was spreading poison, he termed the party a “company” and said the allegations made by several others were true to a large extent.

“There are certain undesirable elements in the party. They have cheated people. I don’t know why they did this,” said Prabhakar, speaking from the party office.

The party hit back at Prabhakar.

Addressing a news conference here in the night, Chiranjeevi’s brother-in-law and PRP general secretary Allu Aravind alleged that Prabhakar made baseless allegations as he was an aspirant for the party ticket for the Narsapuram Lok Sabha seat but had no “roots among people”.

“How dare he use the PRP office after his resignation and make such allegations against the party. He has no morals,” said an emotional Aravind while denying allegations that the party sold tickets for this month’s assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

“It was Prabhakar who spread poison in the guise of sweet talk,” said Aravind while reacting to his branding PRP as a “poisonous tree”.

Aravind, an eminent film producer, threw a challenge at his critics to prove the allegation that he sold tickets. “We have given tickets to 104 candidates from backward classes. How many of them have the capacity to pay,” said Aravind, who is contesting for the Lok Sabha from Ankapalli constituency.

Prabhakar’s exit is the second jolt to the party after last week’s resignation of C. Anjaneya Reddy, a former police officer, who was the party’s vice president.

Dozens of leaders have quit the PRP in the last two weeks to protest the manner in which nominations were given for the assembly and Lok Sabha polls.

Prabhakar, who was earlier with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and worked as an anchor for a TV channel, made a dramatic appearance at the PRP office with his supporters.

He handed over the one-line resignation and addressed a press conference from the same podium he had used as spokesman for media briefings.

“I am a partner in their sin of raising hopes among people that the PRP will bring change. To wash off this sin, I am walking out,” he said.

A week before elections start in Andhra Pradesh, Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) of superstar Chiranjeevi Thursday suffered a big jolt with another key leader resigning and branding it a “poisonous tree”.

Prakala Prabhakar, the party spokesman and an intellectual face in the party, handed over his resignation to the staff at PRP office here and then launched a bitter attack on the leadership without naming anyone.

Alleging that PRP was spreading poison, he termed the party a “company” and said the allegations made by several others were true to a large extent.

“There are certain undesirable elements in the party. They have cheated people. I don’t know why they did this?” said Prabhakar, speaking from the party office.

Prabhakar’s exit is the second jolt to the party after last week’s resignation of C. Anjaneya Reddy, a former police officer who was party’s vice president.

He refused to withdraw his resignation even after Chiranjeevi apologised to him and promised to address the issues raised by him.

Dozens of leaders have quit PRP in the last two weeks to protest the manner in which nominations were given for assembly and Lok Sabha polls. Some alleged that Chiranjeevi’s brother-in-law and party general secretary Allu Aravind took bribes while against party ticket.

Prabhakar was sulking after he was allocated a Lok Sabha constituency in coastal Andhra.

Both Chiranjeevi and Allu Aravind tried to persuade him not to quit but he remained incommunicado.

Prabhakar, who was earlier with the Bharatiya Janata Party and worked as an anchor for a television channel, Thursday made a dramatic appearance at PRP office with his supporters.

He handed over the one-line resignation and addressed a press conference from the same podium he had used as the spokesman for media briefings.

“I am a partner in their sin of raising hopes among people that PRP will bring change. To wash off this sin, I am walking outy,” he said.

The news conference was televised live by several channels even as Chiranjeevi was busy in election campaign. Some PRP activists tried to stop Prabhakar saying he had no right to speak against the party from the party office.

The Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) of actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi Monday promised that if voted to power it would order judicial probe into all cases of corruption reported during the last 15 years of the Congress and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) rules.

The PRP’s election manifesto said the party will conduct a probe by a sitting judge of the high court into corruption in construction of irrigation projects by the Congress government.

The manifesto promised cooking gas cylinder and grocery items for Rs.200 a month for every poor family, distribution of land among poor and total prohibition in phases.

Releasing the manifesto here, Chiranjeevi said if voted to power the first file his party would sign would be for supply of grocery items for Rs.100 per month for every poor family. The party will also supply cooking gas cylinder for Rs.100.

The manifesto promised many populist schemes to counter the Telugu Desam Party’s free colour television and cash transfer scheme for poor and the schemes like Rs.2 a kg rice currently being implemented by the Congress government. The megastar said the grocery scheme would provide food security to the poor.

“This manifesto has been prepared keeping in view the socio-economic conditions prevailing in the state and to achieve our party’s goal of social justice,” he said.

The PRP promised to implement land reforms and allot two to five acres of land for landless poor. It also vowed to usher in ‘gram swaraj’ by transferring powers and finances to village level bodies.

Promising to continue the current scheme of free electricity to farmers, the manifesto said the duration would be increased from the present seven hours to 10 hours. It said it would provide social security to farmers by introducing pension scheme for them.

Under another populist scheme promised in the manifesto, the government would deposit Rs.100,000 in the name of every new-born girl child. She would be paid the amount on reaching the age of 18 years.

All women will get free education from kinder garden (KG) to post-graduation (PG) level. The women members of self-help DWACRA groups will be provided interest-free loans. Women will also be provided 50 percent reservations in appointment of teachers.

The PRP promised creation of half a million jobs in 1,000 days. It said it would also pay unemployment allowance of Rs.1,000 a month to every unemployed youth, and assured Rs.1,500 monthly pension to physically challenged.

The party said it would try to introduce total prohibition in phases and shut down all ‘belt shops’ (illegal counters of licensed liquor shops).