Vijayawada: The unconventional Memantha Siddham Bus Yatra by Chief Minister and YSRC president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is boosting the morale of the party rank and file and recharging their spirits on the eve of the 2024 elections, ruling party leaders claim.
The present bus yatra gave a chance to Jagan Mohan Reddy to explain the development and welfare initiatives he spearheaded in the five years of the YSRC government and is also helping him directly interact with the masses.
Notably, Jagan Mohan Reddy is ahead of the Telugu Desam, Jana Sena, BJP, Congress, and other parties with unconventional campaigns. YSRC leaders say media support for the party and its government was not forthcoming, unlike for the opposition parties. This disappointed the cadres, but the bus yatra helped explain the government’s good steps for the people in the past five years. This rejuvenated the rank and file, they claim.
Usually, the political parties field famous cine actors and leaders as ‘star campaigners’ for elections, but Jagan Mohan Reddy adopted an unconventional method, has turned himself to be a star campaigner, and also designated the beneficiaries of the Navaratnalu welfare schemes as a collective of star campaigners for his party. This was an innovative idea, it is pointed out.
Jagan Mohan Reddy is directly interacting with beneficiaries and receiving feedback from them in the form of Jagananna Ko Soochana through small paper slips. He is cautioning the poor that the welfare schemes might be stopped if the YSRC is out of power.
Unlike other political leaders, Jagan Mohan Reddy carried his message to the people directly, and mostly not through the media. He rarely addressed the media in the past five years of his rule.
Jagan Mohan Reddy had mixed with the masses while as Opposition leader and in the Praja Sankalpa Yatra before the 2019 elections. After becoming CM, he avoided press briefings. Instead, he held forth while addressing the beneficiaries of welfare schemes during the release of the welfare scheme funds. Occasionally addressed YSRC leaders in the party meetings and explained his government’s good deeds.
The CM made good use of the MSBY programme, of late, explaining the welfare and development in detail in every meeting. He made comparisons with the performance of the previous TD government and asked the people to cast their votes for YSRC if they benefited from his government.
The YSRC chief kept saying, “Never before in the history of AP state has anyone distributed as high as Rs 2.7 lakh crore to the needy people without any discrimination or corruption. “If we look at non-DBT, it is about Rs 1 lakh crore, which means a total benefit of Rs 3.7 lakh crore. We have a track record of doing work without taking bribes,” he asserted at his public meetings.
Jagan Mohan Reddy keeps alerting the beneficiaries by saying, “Welfare schemes will continue only if you repose your faith in YSRC and press the button on the fan when you vote in the coming elections. When Chandrababu’s name is mentioned, no scheme will come to one’s mind, but only scams.”
“With Jagan Mohan Reddy’s name, you get reminded about village secretariats, volunteers, pension, good governance, village clinics, Aarogya Suraksha, English medium, farmer assurance, free electricity, input subsidy, 31 lakh house titles in the name of elder sisters, 2.31 lakh jobs, Ammavodi, Vidya Deevana, Kapunestam and Shadi Tohfa schemes, all of which had never happened in the past history of the state,” the CM kept asserting.
He also keeps reminding the people, “We brought 17 medical colleges in the state, 4 new ports, and several new industries.”
