Riding high on confidence after the success of his Praja Sankalpa Yatra, opposition leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy is now keen on finalising his party’s Lok Sabha nominees. Reportedly, Jagan will be selecting the Lok Sabha candidates well before the finalisation of nominees for Assembly seats to ensure harmonious campaigning in each constituency.
With the opposition leader asking the public to give him 25 MPs to get Special status for the State, the responsibility is now on him to field strong candidates against the ruling TDP. However, with key leaders like Geetha, SPY Reddy and Butta Renuka leaving the party, YS Jagan is confronted with the uphill task of selecting winning horses even for YSRCP strongholds of Kurnool, Nandyal and Ananthapuram. Also, internal sources revealed that the party is not happy with the performances of the existing Lok Sabha in-charge leaders and may need another round of shuffling before the election notification is out.
To this effect, YS Jagan is expected to conduct several rounds of meeting over the coming weeks to finally release the list of Lok Sabha candidates. On the assembly front, Jagan has already completed a majority of the groundwork during the Padayatra naming around 120 candidates out of 175 assembly seats in the State.
Selection of the right candidates is the first step for winning and YS Jagan seems to be using his experience to not repeat the 2014 errors. The onus is now on him to balance YSRCP with winning horses both strategically and financially, to fund the party expenditure in the coming months. A prominent media house report reveals that the ruling party is keen on spending Rs 20 – Rs 30 crore on each Assembly constituency and Rs 50 – Rs 70 crore for each Lok Sabha segment. This is a lot of money and the illegal poll expenditure will definitely see a rise in the coming election as it won’t be a one-sided affair as in the case of recently concluded Telangana elections.