TDP gets into Andhra Pradesh poll mode, to launch Idhemi Kharma door-to-door campaign to meet 50 lakh families

The launch of a series of campaigns is being viewed as the opposition TDP getting into the poll mode even though the elections are almost 15 months away from now.

TDP leaders to meet 50 lakh families

The aim of the Idhemi Kharma campaign is to ensure that leaders would meet at least 50 lakh families in as many days and give them the assurance that the opposition party stands with them in their hour of crisis.

The overall target is that TDP cadres should meet at least 2 crore people over the next 50 days.

Sources in the TDP pointed out that party’s central leadership had readied at least 8,000 special teams to be deployed across the state to participate in the Idhemi Karma campaign.

Naidu is expected to visit at least 25 Assembly segments as part of this campaign.

“The TDP has decided to conduct statewide program programmes and demonstrations highlighting the
dire state of governance, issues faced by people, and the downward trajectory of the state’s growth curve under the 3.5 years of the YSRCP regime by reaching out to households across the state through a door-to-door campaign. The party leadership, with the entire party cadre, is going to actively reach out to all the households in the state in a span of 50 days,” said a senior TDP leader.

“Through this programme, the party is aiming to focus on 10 major issues faced by the people across the state, not only by creating awareness but also engaging people on the issues and at the same time highlighting the failure and incapability of Jagan Mohan Reddy’s government by bringing him to the people’s court and empowering people of AP to expose false propaganda of YSRCP,” said the senior leader.

The TDP and its entire cadre will reach out to all villages and households encouraging them to share their suffering and understand the issues they are facing. “The main agenda of this programme is to assure and create ‘bharosa’ (trust) among people that TDP is going to fight alongside people against the regressive YSRCP government,” added the leader.

Lokesh to launch pada yatra on 27 January

The TDP’s heir apparent Nara Lokesh will be embarking on a foot march on 27 January from his family’s pocket borough Kuppam in the Chittoor district.

Lokesh is said to be aiming to walk at least 4,000 km in the next year from January 2023 in the run-up to the general polls slated for the middle of 2024.

His padayatra will culminate at Ichapuram in Srikakulam on the easternmost tip of the state on the Andhra-Odisha border.

Initially, Lokesh was to set off on his padayatra on 2 October — Gandhi Jayanti — the same day his father and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu had launched his padayatra in 2012 from Hindupur.

“Lokesh was to launch the padayatra in October, but the party decided it would fetch better returns if launched in January. It would help build momentum one-and-a-half years before the polls scheduled in May 2024,” a TDP leader told South First.

The route map of Lokesh padayatra has already been finalised.

The padayatra is expected to help Lokesh emerge as the undisputed leader in the TDP as, apart from meeting the general public, he will be interacting with party cadres across the state and fixing issues, if any, among local leaders.

In a bid to resurrect the fortunes of the TDP, Naidu too embarked on a 2,800-km padayatra across the length and breadth of Andhra Pradesh in 2012. Naidu won the 2014 election and became the chief minister of the reorganised state of Andhra Pradesh.