South victory, YSRCP ‘anti-incumbency’ give wings to Congress’s Andhra hopes after 10 years

Although Amaravati is considered its executive and legislative capital, AP is yet to have a proper capital city. After storming to power in May 2019, Jagan floated the idea of decentralised development to avoid making Amaravati the capital city proposed by his arch rival Naidu.

However, despite projecting Visakhapatnam as the administrative capital, Kurnool as the judicial capital and Amaravati as the legislative capital, the Jagan government has not moved forward on this proposal either. The CM had said in March that he was going to shift to Visakhapatnam but has been putting off the plan since.

The Congress party has been in the margins of AP politics since 2014, when the undivided state was bifurcated to create the new state of Telangana. It could not win a single Assembly or Lok Sabha seat in AP, which accounts for 175 Assembly constituencies and 25 Lok Sabha seats, in the 2014 and 2019 elections.

However, buoyed by its resounding wins in two Assembly elections in South India — in Karnataka and Telangana in May and November this year, respectively — the Congress is now testing the waters in AP to see whether its people, who were angry with the party dispensation for splitting the state, have been pacified in the 10-year period.

The Congress’s victory in Telangana has especially given a boost to the party rank and file in AP, who are already claiming “winds of change” in the state. The party leaders say its resources in Telangana and Karnataka would be used for mounting a “robust campaign” for the AP polls.

Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Gidugu Rudra Raju says the party will roll out its electioneering from January 20, claiming it would create a wave in the party’s favour in the polls.

Banking on “anti-incumbency” being faced by the YSRCP government, state Congress leaders are also looking closely at the changing equations between the TDP and the Jana Sena Party (JSP), and the BJP and the JSP.

Raju said that from January 20 the party leaders will undertake a statewide door-to-door campaign called “Intinti Congress’’. The AICC centenary celebrations would be held at Kakinada on December 29 to give a shot in the arm to the state party unit.

Sensing some problems for his party, especially its incumbent MLAs, on the ground, Jagan has already started to revamp it.

Early this week, he changed the party in-charges in 11 Assembly seats, who are likely to replace the sitting MLAs as candidates in the polls. The move resulted in the resignation of Mangalagiri MLA A Ramakrishna Reddy.

Sources in the YSRCP say most of the ministers are facing stiff opposition, and the CM has already changed the constituencies of Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister Audimulapu Suresh from Yerragondapalem to Kondepi, Social Welfare Minister Mergu Nagarjuna from Vemuru to Santhanuthalapadu, and Health Minister V Rajani from Chilakaluripeta to Guntur West.

“We are aiming to win all 175 Assembly seats in this election. It is time to decimate the TDP. We are going ahead with the slogan ‘why not 175?’ and ‘AP needs Jagan’”, said Education Minister Botsa Satyanarayana. He denied that alarm bells were ringing in the party over anti-incumbency, and that the resignations of several party leaders and MLAs are expected before the elections.

YSRCP national general secretary V Vijay Sai Reddy said that the rejig was being done keeping in view the winning chances of the sitting MLAs and probable candidates. “These changes are being made on the basis of ground reports on whether the candidates or sitting MLAs can win. Accordingly they are being reshuffled. More changes can happen, some candidates may be shifted to other constituencies or dropped entirely,’’ Reddy said.

On its part, the TDP is also upbeat with its leaders saying that party general secretary N Lokesh Naidu’s “Yuva Galam yatra” has been “highly successful”. Saturday marked the 224th day of his 4,000 km-long foot march which started on January 27 from Kuppam in Chittoor district and will end at Srikakulam.

Lokesh has already covered nearly 3,000 kms. “His interactions with all walks of people is generating a lot of support for TDP. People are not happy with the YSRCP, especially their sitting MLAs,’’ a TDP leader claimed.

The arrest of Chandrababu Naidu has also created some sympathy for the party. TDP leaders are also hoping that its tie-up with the JSP would further boost their prospects. “TDP-JSP leaders are also hoping that BJP will join the alliance. There was a tie-up in Telangana between JSP and BJP,’’ a leader said. However, all the JSP candidates lost their deposits in the Telangana polls.