K Chandrasekhar Rao sets trends for parties

Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtra Samiti president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has become a trend setter not only in government schemes but also in electoral strategy. With the Rythu Bandhu (farmers’ investment subsidy) scheme Mr Rao attracted national attention. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is thinking of announcing the same scheme across the country ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. 

And Y.S.R. Congress president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy announced in Ichhapuram on Wednesday that he would implement the same scheme if he is voted to power in the ensuing Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections. 

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also announced economic assistance to farmers similar to the Rythu Bandhu scheme.

Political parties are also emulating Mr Rao’s strategy of announcing candidates early in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections and in Andhra Pradesh in the Assembly elections. 

Mr Rao had dissolved the Assembly nine months before schedule, on September 6, 2018, and announced the names of 105 party contestants (of a total 119) on the same day. 

The People’s Front led by the Congress did not announce its candidates till the last minute. 

By then the TRS candidates had completed their first round of campaigning. 

Having realised its mistake, the Congress’s central leadership has decided to announce its Lok Sabha candidates in advance and asked all Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs) across the country to send their candidates’ lists by the end of this month. 

Candidates will be announced in a phased manner by the end of February.

Meanwhile, in Andhra Pradesh, the main political parties, the ruling Telugu Desam, and the YSR Congress, the main Opposition party, are considering announcing their candidates in advance, probably in February. 

The convener of the People’s Front, Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS) president Kodandaram, recently said that the main reason for the defeat of the People’s Front was delay in announcing the candidates.  

The Central Election Commission is likely to announce the election schedule in the last week of February or in the first week of March 2019.