BJP man doubles up as Pawan Kalyan’s political strategist

Hyderabad: Who is Dev, the political strategist of Jana Sena party, and where is he from? After Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan introduced Dev as his party political strategist, several party leaders and others started inquiring about him. And the results startled many. Vasudev alias Dev is a native of Hyderabad and a well-known figure to the people of Chintala Basthi at Khairatabad in Hyderabad.

He changed his name to Dev and claimed that he was from another state. When Pawan Kalyan introduced Dev to party functionaries, the latter, addressing them, had said, “I do not know Telugu completely, as I can speak only bits of it.” In fact, Dev is fluent in Telugu and in the past had participated in Telugu news channel debates. He joined the BJP in the past in the presence of former BJP state president and present party floor leader G. Kishan Reddy. He had also worked as a BJP spokesperson for some time and it was during this period that he participated in Telugu news channel debates representing the BJP.

When asked about Vasudev, G. Kishan Reddy said “I don’t recollect him.” Dev has not shared his contact details even with the Jana Sena office. When Jana Sena media in-charge Hariprasad was contacted for Dev’s phone number, he said, “He has not shared his details, he did not give his contact either, every day he comes to office in the morning.” Vasudev joined the BJP on December 23, 2013 as an educationalist. Dev’s political background is in the BJP and had tried to contest from Sanathnagar Assembly constituency on a party ticket in the previous Assembly elections, but he failed to get a ticket as that constituency was gi-ven to the Telugu Desam (TD) in the alliance.

He was seen in TV news debates two years ago. He later disappeared from the BJP and suddenly appeared in a new “avatar” as a political strategist. He introduced himself to Jana Sena leaders and said in the meeting, “In the past decade I have some experience working with nat-ional and international parties and designing their election strategies and doing surveys.” He also claimed that he ran a political firm with 360 employees. Dev is also a relative of former deputy chief minister and Congress MLA from Andole constituency Damodar Raja Narasimha. Speaking to this newspaper, Damodar Raja Narasimha confirmed that Vasudev was his nephew, and said that as far as he knew Vasudev was in the BJP only and had not changed to any other party.