As we wind down the year 2018, it would be interesting to see how political parties fared in 2018. In this series, we will see how the year 2018 was for major political parties- that Telugu people are interested in.
Let’s see how 2018 is for YSRCP
Click here for TDP political round-up
Click here for TRS political round-up
Click here for Janasena political round-up
MPs resigning and No Confidence Motion:
The 2 events that shaped political landscape of AP in 2018 are – YSRCP MPs resigning for their posts and No Confidence Motion. YSRCP leader Jagan announced long back that their MPs would resign for their posts for the cause of special category status. In early 2018, he also announced that YSRCP would move no confidence motion on Modi cabinet. However, YSR CP did not get political mileage because No confidence motion on Modi cabinet was not taken up as ruckus created by the parties like AIADMK. So, YSR CP MPs resigned to their posts and later No confidence motion was taken up in the parliament but YSR CP MPs were not there in the house.
Click here for : What happens after YSRCP MPs resign
One main reason for YSR CP not getting political mileage despite taking some bold decisions is the lack of strategy from YSR CP leadership. Jagan long back announced his plan of resigning MPs and this gave sufficient time for his political opponents to strategize the counters for this move. He did the same during no confidence motion also. Political analysts point that, had Y S Jagan kept cards close to his chest and suddenly revealed his decisions, it would have delivered a punch on his political opponents as they couldn’t have get sufficient time to strategize. But Jagan always announced all his future political plans much ahead – like a service commission releasing syllabus for the examination to be conducted in future.
Jagan’s Padayatra :
Jagan started his padayatra during the end of 2017 and marched thousands of kilometre this year. Even though some netizens and political opponents trolled Jagan for giving break for his foot march on every Friday because of Court cases, the padayatra did have the effect the party wanted to have on people. Jagan met thousands of people during his padayatra and some film celebrities also joined Jagan during padayatra to extend their support to him.
However there are couple of complaints like – Jagan padayatra lost its sheen after parade on the bridge in Rajahmundry. Another complaint is that, Jagan did not go to Srikakulam to support people during titli cyclone despite he is doing padayatra in the neighbouring district.
Attack on Jagan in Vizag airport:
Another key event in Andhra Pradesh politics in 2018 is the attack on Y S Jagan in Vizag airport. This attack created lot of dramatic equations as YSRCP accused conspiracy by TDP leaders in this attack while TDP alleged that Jagan self-orchestrated this attack on himself. As the mystery is not yet revealed, everyone believing the version they want to believe at this moment.
However, political analysts were really shocked to see ysrcp failing to utilise this opportunity to get any sympathy from people. Jagan did not come out to speak on the issue for more than 2 weeks. Sakshi ran the stories that became too cliche for Telugu audience. Even though vijayamma held a press meet later, it was too late to create any impact as Pro TDP media had already injected it’s version into the people. Even spokesman from political parties other than TDP were lambasting at Jagan for the poor strategy YSRCP followed after this incident.
Overall:
There have been couple of positive as well as negative points for YSR CP in 2018. The positive points are Jagan almost completing his padayatra and creating some sort of impact especially on rural voters.
However there are couple of negative points. Even though YSRCP has following as well as cadre among rural voters, the party doesn’t have good base among urban voters. There was no specific strategy or event by YSRCP overcome this shortfall of the party.
Another main negative point is – even though Jagan was able to project himself as the next alternative for Chandrababu Naidu, he was never able to convince the people why they should vote for him except for the anti incumbency on Chandrababu Naidu. All his speeches are focused on misdoings of CBN and he has been telling people to vote for him as CBN failed to deliver. He he was never able to tell people why they should vote for him without considering CBN factor. He should rise beyond the anti incumbency of CBN and convince people why they should vote for him.
We will have to wait and see how YSRCP will fare in 2019
