This is his first interaction with party workers ever since assuming power in the state. He neither addressed the press or his cadre so far in his tenure.
Published Feb 07, 2024 | 11:00 AM ⚊ Updated Feb 07, 2024 | 11:00 AM
CM YS Jagan in Eluru, Siddham campaign.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSRCP chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy sounded the poll bugle in Visakhapatnam on 27 January with an election campaign slogan “Siddham“, meaning “ready” in Telugu.
Since assuming power in the state, this was Jagan Mohan Reddy’s first interaction with party workers. He neither addressed the press nor his cadre so far in his tenure.
He launched Siddham to ready his cadre to join his fight against the TDP-Jana Sena alliance.
So far, two meetings have been held — one in Visakhapatnam (North Andhra region) and the other in Eluru (Godavari region) — and three more are expected.
There is a ramp from the dais to where the public is seated. He walks the ramp, answering questions from the cadre.
However, it is a one-way communication: The questions from the cadre are pre-planned by his poll-consulting firm I-PAC to spark talks of YS Jagan’s connectivity and approachability.
One of the party workers who attended the meeting in Visakhapatnam told South First, “We were told that Jagan would address our questions, but nothing happened. Though all the cadre in the district attended it, there was nothing new. It felt like the government fund release meetings that he has been doing for years.”
The lack of connectivity with the cadre and the public has been seen as one of the major setbacks to BRS’ quest for power for a third time in Telangana.
The ruling YSRCP’s leaders in Andhra Pradesh were immediately on alert, analysing the reasons for the BRS defeat in Telangana.
Read our earlier report on what led to the BRS’ fall in Telangana. Cadres pointed to uncomfortable reality — a disconnect.
Announcing old candidates despite anti-incumbency and a lack of connection were reportedly the reasons for the BRS’ loss, as mentioned by several analysts. It was also a hot topic in political circles.
Taking a cue from this, YS Jagan has so far announced six lists of in-charges, totalling 16 parliamentary in-charges and 64 Assembly in-charges.
Out of 16 MPs, two have been renominated to contest the Lok Sabha elections, and 14 sitting MLAs were named in the list of 64 in-charges finalised. Reportedly, the in-charges were changed in order to avoid anti-incumbency.
Jagan started his Siddham campaign even as additional lists were being released. The campaign aimed to hold meetings across Andhra Pradesh, igniting the cadre’s spirit for the upcoming elections.
The lifting of the cadre spirit is against the backdrop of internal reports suggesting that the cadre is not actively involved in party affairs.
As per the YSRCP’s internal reports, the cadre largely feels sidelined due to the introduction of volunteers, along with pending dues to the panchayats, which has left the grassroots-level leaders discontented.
The volunteers were introduced in 2019 by the YSRCP government to provide door-to-door services. The new system ostensibly removed middlemen in any form, as volunteers shortlisted beneficiaries. Funds were directly transferred to their bank accounts.
Many sarpanches organised roundtable conferences and even held protests by demanding that the state government release the funds as per the 14th and 15th Finance Commissions (₹965 crore and ₹344 crore, respectively) to panchayats.
With many local works pending, the sarpanches allege that they have faced heat from the public over pending works, and that bills have also been pending since the panchayat elections were held in 2021.
Setting the problems aside and assuring the leaders of resolution in the subsequent tenure, the YSRCP launched the Siddham campaign to rejuvenate the cadre spirit amidst the favour to the TDP-JSP alliance building on the ground.
The Siddham campaign has everything: A careful mobilisation of 10,000 cadres from seven to 10 constituencies, each with designed T-shirts, placards, and chits.
Even the cadres have to pen a question each as Jagan’s entry to the ramp is orchestrated, with professional cameramen recording the scenes.
Everything seemed fine up to this point, but YS Jagan didn’t accept taking questions from the cadre at the last minute, which brought the plans to connect to a halt.
A source from the I-PAC said, “Though the cadre is unhappy, it is not anti-Jagan. So, we have designed an interactive session between the chief minister and the cadre, where they will ask questions related to his personal and political life and he will personally answer each of them. But he is avoiding it for reasons best known to him.”
A Sakshi reporter from Eluru, who is also a YSRCP worker, said: “Jagan walked on the ramp for 40 minutes in the Eluru meeting held on 3 January. We saw him from such close quarters after many years. Not just us, but many of the cadres were also enthused seeing him up close.”
Nevertheless, the connection with the leader seems lacking.
The Visakhapatnam party worker opined that the meeting was no different from other such public meetings: “Many of us, including mandal-level leaders, are waiting for the problems at the local level to be addressed.”
He said, “None from the party’s top brass addressed our problems in the past four and a half years. It was at the regional in-charge meeting, which happens once every six months, where we raised our problems, but none has been resolved.”
The worker added: “Though the welfare schemes are being delivered, there is an issue with registering sites under Jagan’s housing scheme. An MLC, Raghu Raju Indukuri from Srungavarapukota, had to wait for three days and returned from Vijayawada with no appointment.”
The I-PAC source said: “If he followed our plan, the narrative of YS Jagan being close to the cadre would have sufficed and cloaked all other allegations or claims.”
Through these meetings with the cadre being pooled to attend, the enthusiasm observed is high at least now.
However, the consultant raised doubts on whether it would reap many benefits if this one-way communication continued.
