The battle lines are drawn for the April 17 Tirupati bypoll. There will be no big rallies, no massive public meetings and no hype on road shows. This time, the whole focus is on door to door campaigns aimed at having a personal touch with the voters at the individual level.

Both the YCP and the TDP have chosen to put spotlight on the micro level management of the voters. Already, the ruling YCP has huge support from the volunteers network. Each volunteer is assigned around 50 families which means they will be having full details about nearly 200 voters. In the local body elections, the YCP leaders used volunteers effectively to keep a close watch on the voters mood and to make sure they vote for their party.

Faced with no alternative, the TDP has been forced to develop a strong system for itself to counter the impact of the volunteers on the voters. As such, the whole TDP leadership put special focus on reviving and activating booth committees. Each committee is assigned the task of covering over 100 families. What more, the booth committees will also visit each voter’s family about 10 times to raise awareness on over ten topics.

While the YCP and the TDP are focusing on village and ward level management of election, the BJP and the Jana Sena are still banking on star campaigners like Pawan Kalyan, Bandi Sanjay, etc.