Upping the ante against the State which had been on a sop-showering spree, Opposition leader and YSR Congress president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had promised ₹3,000 as welfare pension on coming to power in the ensuing elections.
Mr. Jagan participated in ‘Anna Pilupu’ session with village-level neutral leaders and addressed booth-level cadre in the first ‘Samara Sankharavam’ meeting, thus blowing the bugle and announcing his party’s preparedness for the general elections.
The first major promise seems to be the increase in old age pension from ₹1,000 to ₹3,000.
Addressing the 41,800 booth-level workers, Mr. Jagan likened them to the Pandavas getting ready to defeat the ‘Kaurava Sena’ of the TDP. In a scathing attack against Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, he charged the government with harassing those raising the voice against the TDP’s injustice. “Booth workers need to be alert in checking the voters list and ensure that the people visit the polling station to vote. Chandrababu’s men are at work to delete YSRCP sympathisers and create bogus voters,” he cautioned.
‘Hung Parliament’
Predicting ‘hung Parliament’, he reiterated his party’s resolve to support the party/alliance that supported the Special Category Status. Asked by a worker on how to tackle the spate of sops, he quoted a Telugu proverb indicating that the TDP was out to hoodwink the public.
Mr. Jagan used the second edition of the ‘Anna Pilupu’ to address neutral influencers who, the party believes, can turn positive opinion into votes. The open discussion proved to be a platform for raising queries on the regional level problems and the ‘potential solutions’ offered by the party on coming to power. Bhaskar, an advocate, sought to know if his government would make education free, for which Mr. Jagan recalled the ‘fee reimbursement for all levels’ promise made in the ‘Navaratnalu’. Hemachandra of Srikalahasti raised the stalled Mannavaram project, which would have brought 5,000 local jobs, to which Mr. Jagan promised to bring more industries with 75% of jobs to locals. He also promised Prasanna, a resident of the Kuppam constituency, to complete Palar project. “As the son of late YSR who started the project, I will ensure that it is completed to solve the water woes of Kuppam.”
