By IANS,
Hyderabad : Actor-turned-politician K. Chiranjeevi Saturday celebrated his 54th birthday and vowed to continue his mission to serve the people by keeping the flag of his Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) flying.
Chiru, as he is popularly known among his millions of fans, cut the cake with his family members and friends to celebrate the birthday, four days before the first anniversary of his political party’s founding.
“I like challenges, be it in the film world or in politics. Life has no thrill for me without challenges. I like to move ahead especially when somebody creates hurdles,” he said in an obvious reference to the stories in a section of media that the PRP was planning to merge with Andhra Pradesh’s ruling Congress party.
Rubbishing the talk of merger or of some PRP legislators joining other parties, the actor Thursday alleged that two Telugu dailies were misusing the press freedom to target him.
“Nobody can distance me from people. I came into politics to serve people and came closer to them. What more satisfaction I need in my life,” he said.
Chiru, who acted in 149 films in a career span over three decades, had launched the PRP at a massive public meeting at Tirupati Aug 26 last year.
However, his party bagged only 18 seats in 294-member assembly and drew a blank in the Lok Sabha elections, though it polled 17 percent votes.
Talking to reporters, Chiranjeevi said people and not media would decide the future of his party. He said it was unfortunate that a section of media was trying to rule politics.
The leader of the PRP in state assembly said the party would celebrate its first anniversary by unfurling the party flags across the state. Claiming that there was enthusiasm among party cadre, he told his supporters that good days were ahead for the party.
The PRP chief also cut a cake at his party office to celebrate the birthday. His fans and party workers also celebrated the day across the state by taking up various programmes like blood donation and poor feeding.
Chiranjeevi’s son and young actor Ramcharan Teja, brother and actor Pavan Kalyan, brother-in-law and PRP general secretary Allu Aravind greeted him on his birthday