Visakhapatnam: As the state goes to vote on Thursday for the 175-member Andhra Pradesh Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats, the high octane campaign came to an end on Tuesday evening. Our leaders feel that they have got the shortest possible time — 24 days, (since the poll notification) to reach out to the electorate.
While contestants for the Assembly have hardly anything to complain about, candidates vying for the Lok Sabha seat are an unhappy lot. There are a few contestants who are complaining that they could not get enough time to tour their constituency.
“Under the Vizag Lok Sabha constituency, I have to campaign in seven Legislative Assembly segments. I feel that three weeks wasn’t enough for me to tour entire Vizag. It was very difficult since we needed to plan several things, including logistics,” laments a candidate who is contesting as MP from Vizag.
Apart from the lack of time, a few contestants got tickets late from the party, and this has been another concern for them. They feel that the party is to be blamed for the delay in issuing them the tickets. “My leader’s name was announced in the last list of party candidates. So we were kept waiting and this hampered his political campaign. We need to tour more than six constituencies and it was an uphill task. Contestants feel a lot of time went into identifying the electorate, community and tour map itself,” says an activist, about his MP candidate from Rajahmundry.
Apparently, aspects like issue-based politics, volunteer training and party awareness campaigns were found missing this time.
“It literally became like direct marketing system where party activists are merely going door-to-door and handing over pamphlets. The focus was solely on marketing and not on educating voters,” says a TD leader from Anakapalle.
