Jagan begins booth-level worker meets to prepare YSRCP for polls

Hyderabad: In preparation for the upcoming assembly and Lok Sabha elections, YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) chief Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will launch a series of booth-level cadre meetings, called Samara Shankaravnam, today in Tirupathi.

The exercise, which will be carried out across Andhra Pradesh’s 13 districts in the coming days, will entail Reddy interacting with over 40,000 party workers on Monday who will be asked to give their suggestions for improvement.

A YSRCP functionary from AP who did not want to be named said the party had formed a network of over 5 lakh booth-level workers, which include one convener and 10 people in each booth. The exercise comes just days after Reddy completed his ‘Praja Sankalpa Yatra’ or ‘Padayatra’ across the state, in which he walked 3,648 km to interact with the public.

After such meetings, all booth-level workers will conduct door-to door campaigns in their respective constituencies as part of the YSRCP’s election strategy. Prior to Reddy’s meeting with booth-level workers, he also conducted a closed-door interaction with “influencers” of Chittoor district, in which Tirupati falls.

“Such meetings with influencers will be conducted in all districts. The next set of such interactions will take place at Kadapa, Anantapur and Prakasam,” the YSRCP functionary added.

The ruling-Telugu Desam Party has also undertaken a similar exercise in the state. Party supremo and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has been interacting with about 25,000 party workers online every day.

“The number will start touching 50,000 from Friday. This kind of interaction with the cadre has been going on for a few weeks,” said a TDP leader who did not want to be named.

In the upcoming assembly polls, slated to be held in April-May, the TDP is likely to face the YSRCP alone, unlike in 2014 when it was in an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata party and was also supported by the Jana Sena Party (JSP). As of now, the TDP has 125 MLAs of the total 175, including 22 who defected from the YSRCP, which now has 44 MLAs.

“These closed-door interactions is what all politicians do. What we need to see is who these influencers are. The TDP has been doing this for quite some time. I have been hearing about this for almost a year. But this will help only if there is a pro-establishment narrative. Nothing will help if people are against you,” said political analyst Palwai Raghavendra Reddy.