Andhra Pradesh: Jagan drawing up poll strategy in jail

Hyderabad: YSR Congress Party chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who has been in judicial custody in the Chanchalguda prison here for nearly four months, is utilising his leisure time to prepare an action plan for the next Assembly and Parliament elections in 2014. According to a party MLA, his party is in a win-win situation whether the state is divided or not. If the sate is divided, there will a huge influx of leaders and workers into the party in Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, and, if not, the party will be in a position to win a majority of seats in the two regions, and make substantial gains in the Telangana region because there are quite a number of YSR admirers in the Telangana hinterland.

Already, several party leaders from the Congress and the TDP have got in touch with YSRCP leadership with an eye on the 2014 elections and their political future. He said the YSRCP had become a potent threat to the Congress and the TRS in Telangana. Because of this factor, TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao is camping in Delhi to force the Centre ot take a decision on the Talangana issue. According to a senior Congress leader from Karimnagar district, some more leaders from Adilabad, Medak, Warangal, Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar districts are in touch with the YSRCP leadership. The party has great hopes on Hyderabad city which has 23 Assembly constituencies.

According to the MLA, his party chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy wants to field more than 100 BCs in the Assembly elections to take the sting out of TDP’s BC Declaration. Industrialists and fresh political faces will be preferred to Jagan’s close relatives in allotment of tickets, he said.

The party has already completed the exercise of identifying potential candidates to contest in the 2014 elections after taking into consideration the contents of reports of agencies which had done a survey. Jagan will finalise his plan eight months before the elections. Right now he is sharing his views with his associates who are regularly meeting him during mulaqats at the prison.

“People do not trust either the TDP or the Congress anymore regardless of the fact the Congress is in power and Chandrababu Naidu will be undertaking a padayatra soon. They have already come to the conclusion that the YSRC has emerged as an alternative party and Jagan as an alternative leader," he said.