The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) has kept its options of supporting a coalition government at the Centre open to protect the interests of Seemandhra following bifurcation of the State. It is not opposed to support even a NDA government led by BJP.
Plans of the YSRCP were unveiled by its president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy after releasing the party manifestoes for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in Hyderabad on Sunday. Asked whether his party would support NDA, which was being tipped to come to power after the general elections by pre-poll surveys, Mr. Jagan said they would keep all options open in the best interests of AP.
The party is of the belief that its support to a coalition government at the Centre would help in reconstruction of AP and improve its bargaining capacity for the benefit of the State. On the party's prospects in AP, Mr. Jagan said it would be a sweep for his party as all sections were rallying behind it.
“A look at the many election results in the past, people in Seemandhra have never given a fractured verdict. It will be one-sided as will often happen in Tamil Nadu”, Mr. Jagan observed. He, however, noted that it would be a fractured verdict in Telangana owing to different but obvious reasons.
Explaining about the manifesto for AP, where the party has higher stakes, Mr. Jagan said it comprises everything he had been speaking for the last four years during his ‘odarpu’ yatra and later in ‘jana bheri’ rallies across the State. The party focus would be on development and welfare, he said claiming that no other present-day politician in the State had watched poverty as he did by visiting every nook and corner.
Mr. Jagan stated that ‘amma odi’ would one of the flagship schemes of his government to help the poor families educate their children without many problems. The government would deposit Rs. 500 each per month in the names of two children of every poor family so that the parents did not feel the burden, he said. Besides, expenditure for their entire education would be borne by the government in the form of total fee-reimbursement.
Several schemes for farmers to make agriculture a remunerative vocation, waiver of Rs. 20,000 crore loans for women SHGs, improving the health scheme, regularisation of all eligible contract staff, setting up one agriculture/veterinary colleges for every two districts, three agriculture universities in the State, construction of 50 lakh houses for the poor in five years, developing industrial corridors and developing world-class city as the new capital were among other highlights of the manifesto.
