YSR Congress Party needs to do a thorough self-introspection after Telugu Desam Party’s win with a huge margin of votes in Nandyal by-election. TDP marched royally into two districts of Kadapa and Kurnool which were considered to be YSRCP’s strong hold.
First misstep – Hype
The very first misstep was unnecessary hype for the by-election even before the dates were announced giving enough time for the new Minister Akhila Priya to massively go into people. Projecting it is as Kurukshetram (war) between Jagan and Chandrababu Naidu was not at all required. Using big words like “Referendum” and then backtracking on it after losing shows Jagan in poor light.
Picking Silpa and backing BJP
Had Silpa Mohan Reddy not defected into YSRCP, TDP clearly had an edge and the sympathy of people. Nonetheless picking Silpa was in itself a blunder, evident from the minority votes. Nandyal predominantly has minority voters apart from different sects. The minorities preferred the ruling party candidate due to their clashes with Silpa family. Also, Jagan’s friendship with Bharatiya Janata Party reduced the minority votes. When rumours emerged of alliance with BJP – YSRCP did not strongly oppose it leaving the voter confused.
Autarchic approach
The calculation of doing roadshow for 13consecutive days fired miserably, since TDP Cabinet including CM dedicated more time for canvassing and walked straight into people’s home and not just waving hands on roads. Nonetheless, Jagan is a massive crowd puller, but these people are not transforming into YSRCP voters, because of his unilateral approach.
Disrespectful remarks
While TDP will continue to use “shoot the CM”, “hang the CM” remarks until 2019 elections to target Jagan, the negative reaction of these words from the people was seen immediately in the form of votes. Apart from Jagan’s disrespectful words, MLA Roja’s reckless comments on Akhila Priya’s dressing who lost both her parents rebounded. YSRCP wasted time trying to defend their comments instead of apologising and moving on.
No promises for Nandyal
Riding with the ruling party along with a minister was better for Nandyal. Especially because Jagan did not promise anything for the betterment of the constituency. He was always targeting TDP and spoke of his future plans – of becoming CM and implementing Navaratnalu. But he never uttered a word on the immediate action plan for the development of Nandyal.
CBN’s experience wins over Strategist
YSRCP’s approach and its new strategist Prashant Kishor’s failure was exposed in this election. Depending on Kishor’s team alone massively backfired. The fake trends with fake accounts did not work on social media did not work. Jagan should understand that when he is competing with mastermind Chandrababu with 40years of political experience, Kishor who is just about 40years old, alone cannot be entrusted with such huge responsibility. The YSRCP supremo should finally start listening to his seniors and respecting their words.
Demoralizing speech after defeat
Jagan’s speech after accepting defeat showed that he is in no mood of soul-searching. They are doing the same mistake of blaming the ruling party again for their defeat. YSRCP followers in almost all the debates after defeat said that TDP won by doing unethical things like distributing of money, sarees and nose rings to voters. Instead of politely acknowledging that sympathy factor was crucial for TDP’s win, Jagan’s comments giving credit to CM by saying Chandrababu hit YSRCP hard will only demoralise his cadre.
The only positive takeaway for YSRCP is that they contested instead of unanimous election thus putting TDP in a tight spot. As Jagan rightly said, had he not contested, TDP would have never taken up so many development activities in the constituency. But when the winds of the change blew, Jagan tried to build a wall, while Akhila Priya built windmills.
