As the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the BJP come closer to finalising a seat-sharing formula in Andhra Pradesh, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) has pitched a “Jagan versus all” campaign, drawing a binary of rich versus poor on the basis of social welfare schemes of his government.
Andhra Pradesh’s skyline is plastered with green and blue hoardings with Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy’s face in the foreground and his father Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s in the backdrop. The name of the party or even its election symbol have been omitted to emphasise on centrality of Mr. Reddy in this contest where the TDP-BJP and Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party are on the verge of forming an alliance. Mr. Reddy’s sister Y.S. Sharmila leading the State Congress also stands on the other side of the battleline. Breaking from the tradition of verbose slogans — the party has just one war cry — ‘Siddham’ or ready.
Welfare schemes
The party has a straightforward election pitch — delivery of welfare schemes that were promised in the 2019 campaign. “As per the State government’s data, 92% of rural households in the last five years on an average have earned ₹3.5 lakh as part of various social welfare programmes. The State’s pension bill is ₹24,000 crore in comparison to just ₹8,000 crore of our neighbouring State,” a YSR Congress party strategist claimed. And these welfare schemes are delivered by 2.67 lakh volunteers — one volunteer for every 50 households. These volunteers work out of decentralised secretariats — a total of 15,000 across the State one for every 1,000 households. To draw a comparison, the party is also running a door-to-door campaign underlining top 10 promises of the TDP made in the party’s manifesto of 2014, which it claims, remains unfulfilled.
The contest is also playing out at another level, between two former friends. The campaign for YSRCP is helmed by election consultancy group — I-PAC headed by 36-year-old Rishi Raj Singh, the former protege of political strategist Prashant Kishor, while Mr. Kishor himself had a few meetings with the TDP leadership in the last few months.
The TDP, meanwhile, claims that Mr. Reddy’s pitch of being left alone will not bring him any sympathy from the voters. “He is a political outcast both in the State and nationally. How else do you explain the fact that neither the NDA nor the INDIA want to have a truck with him. Nobody wants to be seen with him because of his dictatorial, vindictive, and eccentric rule in the last five years,” TDP Lok Sabha member Ram Mohan Naidu commented. The TDP-BJP and the Jana Sena Party alliance is expected to be announced in the next few days. According to sources, Mr. Pawan Kalyan is likely to make another trip to Delhi for a final round of talks with the BJP.
