Vijayawada: The flagship Navaratnalu manifesto which gave a landslide victory to the YSRC in the 2019 elections and made Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy the chief minister, has now boomeranged on the party.
The recently announced Navaratnalu Plus perhaps failed to enthuse the masses, while the Telugu Desam offered new sops to attract the masses. One view is that this resulted in the humiliating defeat for the YSRC in the present elections.
The Navaratnalu was a novel concept vis-a-vis the election manifestos. The promises helped the YSRC have a landslide victory with 151 MLAs and 22 MPs in 2019. Banking on the same, Jagan Reddy introduced a modified version, the Navaratnalu 2.0 (Plus), for the polls this time. It, however, did not offer the people benefits on a large scale, in view of the heavy financial burden such promises would entail on the state exchequer. Jagan Reddy was wiser with his experience as an administrator this time. This, however, failed to enthuse the public – so goes the argument.
YSRC leaders including the CM banked on Navaratnalu and put a lot of hope on the welfare scheme beneficiaries to win the present elections. Now, the results shocked the YSRC rank and file. The party got only ten MLAs and four MPs this time.
The YSRC cadres never thought the beneficiaries of the welfare schemes would let the party down. The social security pensions had been offered to 66 lakh people, Amma Vodi to 53 lakh mothers, Rythu Bharosa to 54 lakh farmers and other welfare schemes to more than a crore persons.
On the other hand, the Telugu Desam, Jana Sena and the BJP formed an alliance and fought elections. This helped avoid a split of anti-YSRC or anti-incumbency votes.
The Super Six Manifesto released by Chandrababu Naidu for the TD was drafted on the lines of Navaratnalu, but offering more freebies like free RTC bus travel for women as in Karnataka, three free cooking gas refills per annum, a dole of `1500 per month for women of 19-59 age, a `15,000 Thalliki Vandanam on the lines of Amma Vodi, a hike of social security pension to `4,000 per month and an unemployment of dole of `3,000 per month, apart from an offer to create 20 lakh new jobs in AP. This, it appeared, was Naidu’s master stroke to grab power.
Naidu also promised to give quality liquor at affordable prices, an increase of honorarium of Volunteers to Rs.10,000 from the present Rs.5,000 and a dole of Rs.20,000 to farmers under agriculture assistance.
When the TD-JS joint manifesto was released, BJP leaders dissociated from it, knowing the harm it involved. But, strategically, they welcomed the joint manifesto.
Political analysts note that the free bus scheme offered by the Congress manifestos in Karnataka and Telangana states was a big hit and it helped the Congress party to win the assembly elections in the two states. A shrewd Naidu caught onto it, and he is now smiling his way to power and more pelf.
“Naidu included these in his manifesto along with a promise of free gas refills to attract women. Jagan Reddy’s counter to this was the Navaratnalu Plus, promising to continue the nine flagship welfare schemes and offering a nominal hike in cash benefits to two or three schemes. The people, having tasted blood, wanted more.”
The people were confident that no party would avoid implementing its promises vis-a-vis the welfare schemes as it would turn the masses against the party in future. Having got several benefits from the YSRC, this was time for them to hanker for more -- and TD promised them more than what they hoped for.
Notably, Naidu had outlined his Super Six some months ago, but Jagan Mohan Reddy failed to fathom its full potential for the polls.
