YSRCP to hold rallies across Andhra Pradesh to step up anti-TDP stir

Hyderabad: Exactly 15 years after his father, the late Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy (former chief minister of joint Andhra Pradesh who died in a copter crash on 2 September 2009), had conducted a public meeting at Eluru constituency in West Godavari district as part of his ‘padayatra’ or walkathon (across the then joint state) in 2003, YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) chief Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will do the same and also complete 2,000km of his 3,000-km “Praja Sankalpa Yatra” across Andhra Pradesh.

Reddy, who began his political journey on 2 November 2017, will cover 260-270km across West Godavari district and conduct 12 public meetings, said a communication from the YSRCP office on Sunday. To mark the completion of 2,000km of the Yatra, the YSRCP cadre and leaders on 14 and 15 May will also take out padayatras in all the 175 districts of Andhra Pradesh.

The YSRCP leaders and cadre will wear black badges while participating in the padayatras to protest against the ruling Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP’s) “failures”, including its assurance of getting AP the special status category. With one more year to go for the assembly and parliamentary elections in AP, it is to be seen if Reddy’s walkathon will pay-off.

A YSRCP functionary, who did not want to be named, said that the Praja Sankalpa Yatra has been drawing huge crowds, indicating public support for Reddy. He added that Reddy has so far visited 1,040 villages and 73 assembly constituencies, conducted 86 public meetings and held 392 interactive sessions with the public during the Yatra.

It may also be recalled that Jagan Mohan Reddy’s decision to push for the SCS after he began the walkathon paid off in a big way, as it snowballed into a major political issue and became the prime demand by all political parties after the Union Budget 2018 was released.

The TDP, which initially was only demanding that the centre fulfil its all of its promises made to AP post its bifurcation, also followed suit. It also broke its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the centre and exited the National Democratic Alliance over the issue of AP not getting its due.

“When Naidu conducted a padayatra, he took a huge representation from the public, and sent letters to the joint AP government earlier. Jagan is not doing anything. When he is not getting any representations from the public, it means people are happy with the state government,” said TDP spokesperson Lanka Dinakar, and added that present AP chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had written several letters as an opposition leader in the past.

Political analyst Palwai Raghavendra Reddy, however, opined that Reddy’s padayatra will emerge as a key factor before the 2019 elections. “His father’s political fortunes took the longest leap with a similar march across unified Andhra Pradesh about a decade-and-half ago. Jagan is surely reminding people of his father,” he added.

Raghavendra Reddy also added that Naidu has grossly underestimated public sentiments over the SCS issue, paving the way for opposition leaders, especially Jagan to attack the TDP chief.