What a fall for YS Jagan from the high pedestal of popularity to the abyss of infamy? Last year around this time, he was deemed to be the rising star of India, outdoing others in all indicators of performance and popularity. He was rated among the top 5 last year by India Today. This year, YS Jagan was down by 19 per cent, which is considerable. This is truly a shocker for Jagan, who felt he was invincible and that nothing could shake him.

Here’s why the fall in rankings happened.

Sand Quarrying: Sand quarrying has been YS Jagan’s Achilles Heels. He has thoroughly botched it up. The sand availability for the local builders has been severely affected, while those quarrying are minting money by exporting it to Telangana.

Mining mafia: This by far is the biggest reason for the discrediting of YS Jagan. The mining has become controversial and the leaders like Devineni Uma who raised their voice were pushed behind the bars. All these gave an impression that there’s something seriously wrong in the mining sector. Mining is the cause of a very serious spat between YSRCP MLA Kakani Govardhan Reddy and TDP’s Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy.

Witch-hunting of the TDP leaders: This has brought great discredit to the YSRCP. Senior leaders like Atchen Naidu, Dhulipalla Narendra, Kollu Ravindra and Devineni Uma were put behind the bars. The arrest of Lokesh too has earned a bad name for the ruling party. The TDP has managed to take the issue to the notice of the public at large.

Three Capitals: The three-capitals issue has make the government very unpopular. This has led to dissatisfaction in rest of the state and the shifting of capital from Amaravati has led to great discontent. The Amaravati agitation is continuing for over two years without an end. This has led to a kind of uncertainty and has affected the investment atmosphere.

Courts reprimand the Govt: The Jagan government had to face great embarrassment of being chided by the courts once too often. Be it the Amaravati issue, the English medium issue, Mansas Trust affair, YS Vivekananda Reddy’s murder, ZPTC elections or the Nimmagadda Ramesh Issue, the courts have severely reprimanded the government. This has hit the credibility of the government.

Large-scale corruption allegations: The government is facing allegations of corruption in reverse tendering, Vidya Deevena kits, irrigation scams, inability to account for the spending of Rs 41000 crore and other scams. They are affecting the overall image of the party.

All these have affected the overall rankings of the YSRCP government. The result is there for all to see.