Vijayawada: Poll drive after Sankranti

Vijayawada : Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is set to launch his pre-election campaign from January 25 and by that time the ruling YSRCP hopes to complete the process of announcing the final list of candidates.

Jagan would launch his campaign from the North Andhra region and would address public meetings with the slogan ‘Why Not 175’. The campaign would highlight the welfare schemes launched by his government in the last five years. He would ask the people to vote for his party if at least one in their family had benefitted from the welfare schemes launched by his government. He would caution them by saying that if they vote for the Opposition parties, the welfare schemes would be scrapped by the successor government. The YSRCP chief would also emphasise on his criticism of TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan saying that while Naidu was a backstabber and a person who had indulged in several scams during the TDP rule, Pawan was a package star.

In fact, post Sankranti the political heat in the state would begin in full scale as the TDP-JSP combine would also launch combined public meetings. The alliance is likely to announce their list of candidates soon after the festival. They will also announce their joint manifesto either on Sunday or Monday.

However, dissention in the YSRCP does not seem to die down yet. While former minister Kolusu Parthasarathy who would be meeting Naidu at Hyderabad on Saturday said his inability to make personal accusations against the Opposition leaders and their families had cost him his seat in the YSRCP. He said the ruling party had not considered the services of senior BC leaders like him. On the other hand, the feud between Malladi Vishnu who was denied ticket from Vijayawada Central and his successor Vellampalli Srinivas refuses to die down. Efforts to bring coordination between the two did not succeed though the party promised him the MLC post.

Interestingly, BJP leader Sujana Chowdary on Friday stated that he was keen to contest from the Vijayawada Lok Sabha constituency if the party agrees. The BJP is also keen to contest the Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha seat. Rajya Sabha MP GVL Narasimha Rao has been working in the constituency for some time in an anticipation of securing the party ticket.