A day before Telugu megastar Chiranjeevi launched his Praja Rajyam Party on August 26 last year, Andhra chief minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy made the moves that would deliver a stunning victory to the Congress at the state level and ensure a spectacular performance in the parliamentary elections eight months later.
With elections less than eight months away, the matinee idol?s raging popularity could mean a formidable political foe for the Congress. That was not YSR?s only worry. His main rival, Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu, was already making the moves to stitch together an alliance with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and Left parties. ?A quiet warning went to MLAs who were neglecting their constituencies to either perform or face the axe. Not getting enough support from a worn-out Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC), the chief minister also took it upon himself to popularise the various government schemes for the poor,? says Congress leader Dr Tulasi Reddy.
In YSR?s inner circle were his son Jagan Mohan, a successful industrialist and managing editor of Telugu daily Sakshi, and confidants like Rajya Sabha MP KVP Ramachandra Murthy, and ministers Botsa Satyanarayana, Savita Indra Reddy and K Rosaiah. Rosaiah, the finance minister, loosened the purse strings when YSR demanded more funds for the government?s many schemes that included Rs 2-per-kg rice, free medical treatment for BPL families, free power to farmers, pension scheme for widows and the most popular ?Indiramma? housing scheme.
YSR adopted a multi-pronged approach to tackle the opposition. ?He launched a flurry of new schemes and individual benefit programmes for the poor. He identified communities and sectors that were in crisis like the weaving community in Telangana. Instead of announcing bailout packages, he unveiled a long-term plan that would not only help them immediately but also provide education to their children, healthcare, insurance, marketing of their products, and also provide small loans to start ancillary businesses. This was done under the Mission for Eradication of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA). On the other hand, YSR withdrew anything that was likely to cause vote banks to move away from the party,? says Jagan Mohan Reddy.
He scrapped the 1,000-km-long Coastal Corridor after coastal communities protested that land was being forcibly taken away from them. ?By doing this, YSR also ensured that the coastal communities including Kapus and backward classes did not move away from Congress towards the PRP,? a source said.
YSR also fielded more candidates from the weaker sections than the PRP and the Grand Alliance while ensuring that the powerful Reddy community, which has always been loyal to the Congress, was represented with 83 candidates.
Finally, after Chiranjeevi and his actor brother Pawan Kalyan, TDP?s star campaigner Junior NTR and Balakrishna and others started winding down their road shows, YSR embarked on a gruelling 29-day trip in which he addressed over 150 public meetings in 21 districts.
?There was no magic formula, no wave. We came back to power because of the goodwill that was created by the pro-poor schemes. We ensured that the aam admi did get roti, kapda aur makan, and not just talk about it,? he claims.
