Vijayawada: It looks like the political parties in Andhra Pradesh have drawn battle lines anticipating early polls as sounded by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday with his party leaders. In no time, Chandrababu Naidu had appointed all his ministers as incharges for all the 25 Lok Sabha Constituencies in the State. Besides trying to make his Telugu Desam Party stronger through these appointments, Chandrababu Naidu is also targeting at the Opposition. It was seen in the government sending the police to the Opposition YSR Congress party office and serving a notice to its IT wing to appear for enquiry on their social media posts against the government. This had further ignited the war between the ruling party and the Opposition with Y S Jaganmohan Reddy giving an open call to all the Telugu people across the globe to expose the TDP’s rule.
In the two-edged strategy that Chandrababu Naidu had adopted, he had first handpicked his Cabinet Ministers to be incharges for the 25 Lok Sabha constituencies. Except Union Ministers Y S Chowdary, who was made incharge of the Kurnool Lok Sabha constituency and P Ashok Gajapathi Raju for Anakapalli, the Chief Minister had nominated the rest of his Cabinet Ministers for each of the constituencies. His son Lokesh is made incharge of the Vijayawada Lok Sabha constituency.
Chandrababu Naidu had set the target of the Lok Sabha Constituency incharge Ministers to coordinate the MP and MLAs in their respective area and keep the rank and file intact. The incharge Ministers would now have their word carried, keeping the respective MP aside. While it is to be seen if this incharge structure would help the party to keep the folks together or lead to dissidence and divide, Chandrababu Naidu believes that incharges have to hold responsibility in leading the party to the next elections.
The second edge strategy of weakening the Opposition seems to have failed as the police who went aggressive in arresting a social media activist had to retreat and free the ‘accused’. Jaganmohan Reddy’s aggressive call to his supporters is all set to see a tough battle fought in the social media ahead of the elections.
