Jagan switches focus to Opposition strongholds

VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy as president of the YSR Congress has started concentrating on the Opposition-held assembly segments and also the constituencies that were won by his party with low margins in the 2019 polls, with a view to making a clean sweep for the ruling party in the next polls.
 
He started conducting meetings with party cadres of those segments, instilling confidence in them to beat the rivals.

Opposition Telugu Desam had won 23 MLA seats while there were 22 segments that were won by YSRC with low margins. Jagan, under ‘Mission 175-Elections 2024’ started meetings and completed review of Alur, Kuppam, Tekkali, Mandapeta and Addanki assembly segments by now.

The political scenario in AP is swiftly changing with speculations of TD and Jana Sena along with BJP jointly taking on the YSRC as in the 2014 elections, so as to oust Jagan Reddy from power.

The YSRC got 49.95 per cent vote share, TD 39.17, JS 5.53 BJP 0.84 while the rest of the votes were shared by other political parties in AP during the 2019 polls. The TD and JS are planning to unite the opposition parties to increase the vote percentage to above 50 per cent in the 2024 elections so as to defeat the YSRC.

Earlier, during the TD term, the Opposition constituencies had got no funds for development.  Jagan Reddy generously allotted funds and carried out developmental activities in opposition-held constituencies too, also with a view to attracting the traditional voters of TD towards the YSRC in the next elections.
 
He started giving top priority in allotting funds for development of TD assembly constituencies. This mission was started from Kuppam constituency, and it worked well. The YSRC won all the local elections despite Kuppam being a traditional bastion for Chandrababu Naidu, which he is winning without a break since 1989.

Jagan further gave MLC Post to 33-year-old KRJ Bharat, who will be the YSRC candidate in the 2024 elections from Kuppam. The MLC post to Bharat helps him resolve public issues and push development works in Kuppam. Jagan sanctioned ` 56 crore to Kuppam municipality and took up the Kuppam branch canal works to complete it in one year’s time.

Similarly, the CM offered MLC post to Duvvada Srinivas, who is in-charge of Tekkali assembly constituency from where TD state president Kinjarapu Atchannaidu had won the seat repeatedly. In the 2019 election, YSRC aspirant Perada Tilak lost to Atchannaidu. Hence, this time, the CM announced Srinivas as the party candidate for the 2024 elections.

Further, the state government spent Rs 1,026 crore of funds for development in Tekkali segment in the past three years. Notably, there was group politics in YSRC in Tekkali. Hence, Jagan promised MLC post to Tilak and asked him to work for the win of Srinivas vis-à-vis the Tekkali assembly seat.

Jagan spent Rs 1081 crore of funds in Addanki segment, which was a bastion of TD for years and prepared B Krishna Chaitanya as YSRC candidate for the2024 elections. A total of Rs 946 crore was spent in Mandapeta, which was won by V Jogeswara Rao of TD in 2019. Jagan gave MLC post to Thota Trimurthulu and chose him as YSRC aspirant for the 2024 elections.

According to sources, beside the 23 seats of TD, some 22 seats were won by the YSRC with simple margins of 25 votes,708 votes, 814 votes, 838 votes and 1,000 to 9,000 vote majority. Very tough fights were registered in these 22 seats between YSRC and TD in the 2019 election.

Jagan is expecting an increase in the support of the people of these constituencies to the YSRC due to development and welfare programmes. He has instructed YSRC legislators, leaders and cadres to work to retain these seats without giving any chance to TD, by mingling more with the public, explaining development and welfare.

The sources said the CM will continue the reviews of all 23 TD segments in the coming days and the less- margin segments thereafter.