We are less than a year away from elections in Andhra Pradesh. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is in Kadapa for a three-day tour on the occasion of YSR Jayanthi.
While Sharmila visited the YSR Ghat in the morning, Jagan’s tour is scheduled for the evening to avoid coming eye to eye with her sister. Meanwhile, there is not much enthusiasm in the Kadapa district while the Chief Minister is visiting.
Be it during the YSR’s tour or Jagan’s tour, we used to see an electrifying energy in the public and the cadre but there is not even a trace of it in the present tour.
There is a complete neglect of the second-tier leaders and cadre of Kadapa in the last four years. Leaders who have spent money in the first two years are now reeling under debts and are struggling to get their bills cleared by the Government.
They do not even get the Chief Minister’s appointment to let him know about their troubles.
Things are more or less the same for the general public. In Pulivendula, most people used to approach YSR freely while YSR was the Chief Minister. In the first year of Jagan’s rule, there is some accessibility but later on, everything changed.
Officials have started barricading the entire road when the Chief Minister is traveling. Only handpicked leaders and the public were allowed. So, the general public is also not very interested.
Moreover, there is a widespread perception in the people that Kadapa MP Avinash Reddy is involved in the conspiracy of YS Vivekananda Reddy. Avinash is the eyes and ears of Jagan in the district. That also hampered YSR Congress’s image in the district.
Kadapa is a fortress of the YSR Congress. Incidentally, Nara Lokesh’s Yuvagalam Padayatra received the highest response in the district among all the districts of Rayalaseema. With elections fast approaching, this mood in CM’s own district is very distressing for the party cadre.
While it is too early to speculate anything about the results, these are bad optics for sure in politics and will not set the right mood and expectations for the party’s rank and file.
