Jagan has the last laugh as CB Naidu and TDP bite the dust

CB Naidu was a contemporary of Jagan’s father and former Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, in united Andhra. After Andhra split, Naidu looked invincible and the resulting overconfidence in himself turned out to be his folly.Unable to implement infrastructural projects, corruption charges, allegation of attempts to alter voter lists all worked against Naidu. Instead of course-correction, he took the easier route which was to blame the central government and Modi. He tried to play the South vs North and ‘injustice to Andhra’ card. But Jagan, took the opportunity to solidify his base and expand in areas which saw anti-incumbency against Naidu. The result was we saw on 23rd May – Jagan’s YSRCP won in 151 assembly constituencies to just 23 of TDP. He is expected to become the next CM of Andhra Pradesh. In Lok Sabha polls too, TDP won a mere 3 and YSRCP won a massive 22 out of the 25 seats.

In 2014 Assembly polls Jagan came very close to capturing power but lost the polls by a mere 1.6 per cent vote margin. Naidu had forged an alliance with the BJP and Jana Sena Party in 2014 and managed to win. After he broke away from the NDA, he was all alone and that was not sufficient to keep his throne. Hoping to retain power, he hastily announced a slew of welfare schemes, plan of making Amaravati as the “world class capital”of Amaravati, etc. His government was unable to make any progress on the Polavaram project which was also mired in corruption charges. When governance failed, he weaned away 23 YSRCP MLA’s to TDP and made 4 of them as ministers.

However, common people of the state saw his welfare schemes and projects as a election gimmick. For more than 4 years, governance in the state was in a limbo, allege many commoners.Anti-incumbency against his government and most MLA’s was evident during the election campaign. Jagan was able to garner more than twice the people in TDP rallies in each assembly constituency.Though Jagan too raised the issue of ‘Special Category’ for Andhra during elections and earlier, he did not resort to bad mouthing Modi or NDA. He focused his energies on the poor governance and corruption charges against Naidu. Mismanagement of temple affairs, especially TTD which manages Titupathi was surely on people’s minds.

There are certainly a variety of reasons that has triggered the collapse of Telugu Desam Party and CB Naidu. Along with anti-incumbency, Jagan’s systematic campaign and ability to bring the issues in front of people has to be given due credit. Jagan has beaten a seasoned politician with 4 decades of experience at his own game. Jagan’s ‘Odarpu Yatra’, a 3648 km long walk across Andhra Pradesh endeared him to the people. It was during this yatra, he was able to convince the people on corruption and Naidu’s failure in fulfilling most of the election promises he made in 2014. This seems to have surely worked in Jagan’s favor.