It is not easy to head a political party in the opponent’s bastion.
With the image of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy looming large in his home district, the TDP has adopted a three-pronged strategy of tackling the overtly-confident YSR Congress activists, infusing morale in the party cadre and convincing the indifferent ‘neutral’ voters. Though a daunting task, district president R. Srinivasa Reddy has taken meticulous care in the last few years in building the party brick by brick.
Though a ticket aspirant himself, he had to sacrifice his dream to shoulder the responsibility vested upon him by party chief Chandrababu Naidu to steer the party to victory. As ‘victory’ in Kadapa district means anything beyond the single seat (Rajampet) won in 2014, the party chief leaves no stone unturned to break the jinx and is confident of winning at least six to eight of the 10.
Clinching factors
In an exclusive interview to The Hindu , Mr. Reddy sounded confident over two factors clinching the deal in favour of the party. The waning YSR image and the Muslim vote bank getting back to the TDP fold after it snapped ties with the BJP.
“Earlier, people used to fear YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s faction politics and voted for the Congress. Sentiment worked for Jagan in 2014 after the YSRC was formed. This time we don’t see YSR’s image prominently even in that party’s poll graffiti,” he reasons.
Mr. Reddy is of the view that the Muslim community, which had sailed with the TDP since the NTR era, stayed away due to the TDP-BJP alliance. “A small section of Muslims accepted TDP during Vajpayee time, but totally shunned us due to the presence of Modi. Now, the breakup will get the community back into our fold.” He strongly feels that the TDP had lost more Muslim votes in Kadapa than what the BJP actually brought into its fold. Though a section of Reddys is heavily tilted towards the YSRC, the TDP banks on the BC and the Balija communities. “Our development will certainly attract the neutral voters having no party affiliation,” he feels.
Serious efforts
That the party has taken Kadapa seriously is quite evident from the number of times Mr. Naidu toured the district, the quantum of funds sanctioned to irrigation projects, the development of the Yogi Vemana University, the efforts taken to bring warring factions led by Adinarayana Reddy and Ramasubba Reddy together and the latest, the foundation stone laid to the Rayalaseema Steel Plant Corporation, which remained elusive for a couple of years.
