As campaigning in Andhra Pradesh draws to a close — ahead of elections to State Assembly and Lok Sabha next week — the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) led by its president and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy appears to have gained the lead over the opposition by reaching out to the people across the State.

Jagan Reddy got his skates on much earlier than the Opposition with his ‘Siddham’ public meetings in February with first meeting at Denduluru (Eluru district) even as the Telugu Desam (TDP)-Jana Sena (JS)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Front not formalised and was in a state of quandary over seat sharing in pre-poll alliance.

Then came the ‘Memamtha Siddham’ bus yatra from March 27 where he covered 21 Lok Sabha Constituencies in the State, was followed by a hectic three public meetings a day in Andhra and Rayalaseema regions which is now coming to a close.

Commoners as Campaigners

Unlike the Opposition, the YSRCP had no start campaigners except Reddy himself. The party had a creative solution for this when it appointed common people as its campaigners.

During one of his Siddham campaign meetings, Jagan remarked that the voters would be his party’s star campaigners in the upcoming polls. “My true star campaigners are the people of Andhra Pradesh and I don’t want anyone else,” he said at the launch of the Siddham campaign.

Subsequently, the YSRCP picked 12 commoners as its star campaigners, representing every section of the nearly 5 crore people of the State. “It is the YSRCP’s belief that every person of the State is their star campaigner. Hailing from humble backgrounds, these individuals will campaign for the party on the ground and help propagate Jagan’s message till the last mile,” the party said in a statement.

The Chief Minister noted that a ceiling fan — the election symbol of YSRCP — should always be inside the house, a bicycle (TDP’s symbol) outside and an used tea tumbler (Jana Sena) in the kitchen sink. “Fan should always be inside the house! Cycle should always be outside and a used tea tumbler should always be in the sink,” said Reddy in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

The party’s star campaigner said he had “clicked the button 124 times” to disburse a whopping ₹2,55,000 crore through DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) for welfare schemes to eligible beneficiaries with transparency in the last 57 months and called upon the cadre to advise people to press “two buttons for the YSRCP — one for the Assembly and the other for the Lok Sabha”.

David-vs-Goliath

Reddy painted himself as the lone ‘David’ against team Goliath comprising of TDP Chief N Chandra Babu Naidu, JS Chief and actor Pawan Kalyan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi besides Home Minister Amit Shah. He calls himself as the ‘Abhimanyu’ of Mahabharata who fought against ‘Dusta Chatustaym’ (title given to the quartet — Duryodhana, Dushashana, Karna and Shakuni)

The opposition also had a late start in the campaign and faced the challenge of synchronising cadres of the different parties to lead to a united campaign without differences.

While Reddy is “sure” of securing a clear mandate for 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats this election season, it remains to be seen if the lead for YSRCP in campaigning and its early bird advantage would bring the party back to power in the State for a second term.