Jagan likened the upcoming electoral battle to the state Assembly and Lok Sabha to the battle of Kurukshetra between the Pandavas and Kauravas.
YS Jagan at the Visakhapatnam 'Siddham' meeting. (Supplied)
A drum was kept ready on the dais as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and founder-president of the YSRCP tore into the Opposition like Arjuna in the battle of Kurukshetra against the Kauravas in the epic Mahabharata.
If that battle was for the throne of Hastinapura, Jagan’s war is for a second term in Andhra Pradesh, and bagging most of the 25 Lok Sabha seats.
Addressing party workers at Sangivalasa in Visakhapatnam’s Bheemili on Saturday, 27 January — his first mass interaction with the cadre after 2019 — Jagan invoked the Chakravyuha, the multi-tiered military formation with which Arjun’a son Abhimanyu was trapped and killed by the Kauravas. Unlike his father, Abhimanyu only knew how to breach the formation, not to exit it.
“In this battle, I am not Abhimanyu who fell prey to the opposition’s deceit. I am Arjuna,” he declared, drawing thunderous applause for the obvious reference to the TDP-Jana Sena joining hands to take on him — not to mention his sister YS Sharmila, who has taken over as the president of the Andhra Pradesh Congress.
Jagan also invoked Lord Krishna, who, in the epic, was Arjuna’s charioteer and guide during the war with the Kauravas.
“I want all of you to stand with me like Krishna did in Mahabharata,” he said.
He then proceeded to sound the drum.
The electoral war has been declared in which the YSRCP would be the Pandavas, and the Opposition, the Kauravas.
Party workers from 34 Assembly segments spread over six districts in north-coastal Andhra Pradesh attended the meeting where Jagan called upon them to publicise his governance and the implementation of welfare schemes in the past 56 months.
Jagan urged the YSRCP activists to go door-to-door and convey the message that his hallmark welfare schemes would continue in the future only if he was returned to power.
“Why can’t we win all the 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats as we have brought revolutionary changes in educational, agricultural, health, and administrative sectors and implemented welfare schemes without bias and transparently through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBTs) to beneficiaries,” Jagan asked.
Jagan criticised the Opposition parties and termed his welfare schemes his weapons, while the Opposition, aided by their friendly media, were sharpening their ammunition with false promises and vicious propaganda.
He called upon the cadre to explain to the people how TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu had not fulfilled 600 promises made in 2014, and in contrast, how YSRCP fulfilled 99 percent of the election promises in the past 56 months.
“People should know that the YSRCP must make a clean sweep in the elections to ensure the continuation of the welfare schemes for the next 25 years,” he said.
“Nenu Siddham, Meeru Siddhama (I am ready, are you ready)?” Jagan asked. The crowd roared in the affirmative.
Siddham (Ready) is the war cry of the YSRCP.
Interestingly, Jagan urged the party cadre to prepare for the “lone battle” he is poised to wage in the 2024 elections. The remarks about the lone fight came as the TDP and the Jana Sena announced their partnership whose sole purpose is to unseat the YSRCP, and sister Sharmila assumed the charge of the state Congress unit.
Earlier, Jagan responded to Sharmila joining the Congress during the India Today Education Summit on 24 January 2024. He stated that it was the Congress who had split the family.
He explained that Congress fielded his uncle YS Vivekananda Reddy against his mother YS Vijayamma in 2011 the Pulivendula Assembly bypoll and now his sister has been picked as the Congress chief.
Incidentally, while resigning from the Congress on 29 November, 2010, he had made the same allegation.
“Is it fair to lure my uncle YS Vivekananda Reddy to Delhi, thereby paving the way for fissures in my family?” he had asked in an open letter to the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
YS Sharmila retaliated to her brother’s remarks, saying it was not the Congress but Jagan alone who was responsible for the break-up of their family. She emphasised that their mother, Vijayamma, and the entire family were witnesses to his role.
On the TDP-JSP alliance, Jagan contended that they lacked candidates to field, whereas his party has 175 candidates ready to contest.
Jagan further emphasised that the TDP, a feudalistic force, was seeking alliances to contest the elections as Naidu could not approach people alone and ask for votes.
“Tell the people that Jagan depends only on their support, unlike the TDP, which relies on falsehoods, lies, and conspiracies aided by friendly media, foster sons, and other capitalist forces,” he said.
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