Elections nearing; BRS joins padayatra bandwagon to counter BJP, Cong

Hyderabad: Almost a year before the general elections in 2024, and a few months prior to the Assembly elections later this year, major political parties have been initiating voter outreach activities, most notably in the form of padayatras. BRS leaders are set to become the latest to join the bandwagon.

To counter the padayatras of the Congress and BJP leaders, BRS MLAs are devising plans to undertake walkathons in their respective constituencies from April. The party leadership has instructed MLAs to plan programmes for the next four months to inform people about the welfare schemes and development programmes being implemented by the BRS government.

The party asked the MLAs to convey their plans, and it was learnt that the majority preferred padayatras to reach out to the people since the main Opposition leaders had stoked the political climate by undertaking padayatras. Unlike the Opposition leaders, there will not be any state-wide padayatras by any leader in the BRS.

While BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar has completed five rounds of padayatras, covering several constituencies in multiple districts, TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy has covered two districts of Warangal and Karimnagar, and is currently on a yatra in the third (Nizamabad).

Throughout their padayatras, the Opposition leaders have been aggressively attacking the BRS government and specifically targeting local BRS MLAs at street corner gatherings and public meetings in their Assembly constituencies. The BRS MLAs, pushed to the defensive, are eager to counter the onslaught. Since there are 104 BRS legislators for the 119 constituencies, they believe they can cover the entire state in two months. They also believe that undertaking padayatras will give them an edge over the Opposition MLAs. This is because they can take officials of various departments along with them, meet the people, know their grievances and resolve them on the spot.