#2022TheYearThatWas: Jagan flaunts, Naidu taunts, Pawan daunts

AMARAVATI: For the brand of volatile and vituperative politics it hosts, Andhra Pradesh always resembles a powder keg ready to explode. A quick recap of the year gone by shows that 2022 was no different. After a two-year COVID-19 layoff, 2022 was the first full year where politics came out of the virtual cocoon and returned to their familiar habitat – the streets.

As the trend of vengeful politics continued, there was no dearth of verbal spats, provocations, high-voltage protests, controversial government decisions and legal battles. Despite the surcharged fare, the year will also surely be remembered for setting all the political stakeholders into an election mode. With more than a year still left for the polls, all the political parties have already hit the streets in their desperation to woo the public and win their votes.

At the same time, with no other elections left before the 2024 showdown, the year 2022 saw the beginning of a psychological warfare between the ruling and the opposition parties to precipitate the public perception firmly in their favour. With their respective media organs playing the role of spin doctors, the major political players tried hard to implant their narratives in the minds of the people with ‘make-believe’ optics. Interestingly, the TDP and its ally of all seasons, the Jana Sena, seemed to have gone ahead of the YSRCP in these mind games, at least in 2022.

Buoyed by the successful implementation of its welfare schemes and the thumping victories in the local elections held until last year, the ruling YSRCP appeared to have spent most of 2022 in a zone of its own, until its chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy decided to crack the whip recently.

Confident YSRCP guards against complacency

Jagan’s ‘Target 175’ tail-twister for legislators

Leading the pack of political parties in Andhra Pradesh, YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSRCP had nothing much to rave about in the first half of 2022. After pulverising its opponents in all the local elections in 2021, the ruling party had no more litmus tests in 2022 to prove its unwavering popular support. The only window of such opportunity came in Atmakur in May where it scored a predictable victory in a by-election caused by the demise of Mekapati Gautham Reddy. It was a different story that its failure to achieve a 1,00,000-vote margin – a benchmark the YSRCP set for itself – caused mild heartburn and gave momentary solace to the opposition parties.

Except for riding high on a sympathy wave in Atmakur, the YSRCP had no electoral battles to flex its muscle in the year and was mostly seen to be content with safeguarding the fort from the opposition brickbats and indulging in verbal spats. Being a ruling party is one half of the reason for this while YS Jagan’s non-fussy deliverance of governance created an unlikely comfort zone for the party folks at all levels. The Chief Minister’s model of welfare via DBT and non-DBT, reaching benefits to the masses through a well-entrenched network of village secretariats and volunteers, has certainly given the YSRCP the bragging rights but also resulted in its diminished presence on the ground.

This led to a perception, perhaps contrived to an extent, that the rank and file of the ruling party was slowly slipping into an inertiatic state and began to alienate themselves from the man on the street, whom they successfully endeared in the 2019 elections.

Realising the need to stay ahead also in the perception battle, the YSRCP president floated the slogan, ‘target 175’. He stunned everyone by calling for a clean sweep in 2024 while injecting the self-belief in his leaders and cadre that the ambitious objective was not impossible to achieve either. Jagan’s confidence stems from his assessment that most of the families in the state were being benefitted from one scheme or the other from the basket of welfare initiatives being implemented by his government.

With the ‘Target 175’ call, Jagan certainly succeeded in hitting three birds with one shot: he shook up his partymen from deep slumber to make them battle-ready one year in advance; made the people to pause and believe that his YSRCP is supremely confident of putting up a better show at the hustings in 2024 and lastly, exposed the diffidence of TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena’s Pawan Kalyan and their reluctance to commit to a solo fight against the YSRCP.

Also, in an attempt to pre-empt complacency creeping into the party, YS Jagan devised the ‘Gadapa Gadapaku Mana Palana’ (Our governance to every doorstep) initiative to help his leaders keep their mass-contact intact. The programme provided the much-needed motivation for the YSRCP legislators and aspirants in other constituencies to stay active on the ground. Despite a few hiccups, the initiative is also helping a great deal in resolving unattended grievances of the people.

Reflecting his serious intent on his ambitious plans for 2024, YS Jagan did not even hesitate to put some of his legislators on notice. Armed with survey reports, the YSRCP chief was reported to have called out at least 30 MLAs for falling behind in popularity ratings in their constituencies. These men and women were issued the ‘shape up or ship out’ ultimatum a year in advance. The poor performers were even remorselessly warned that they could be replaced with better fits if they failed to pull up their socks and improve their ratings.

Advantage YSRCP in the ‘Amaravati vs Three Capitals’ tussle

The YS Jagan-led YSRCP Government in Andhra Pradesh, which had been having a hard time with the judiciary that has ambushed many of its initiatives, however had its biggest respite in 2022. It came in the form of a Supreme Court stay on the High Court’s order in favour of Amaravati as the only capital for the state.

Though an interim direction, this has given a shot in the arm for YS Jagan to push ahead with his plans to establish the executive capital in Visakhapatnam, judicial capital in Kurnool and legislative capital in Amaravati. Legal ramifications apart, Jagan’s mantra of decentralisation of administrative powers to ensure all-round development and thus remove regional imbalance, appears to have worked wonders for the YSRCP in all the three regions. On the other hand, it also seemingly worked to its advantage politically as it forced the TDP, the Jana Sena and the BJP to run the risk of alienation for their blind support for the cause of Amaravati at the expense of other regions.

By organising mammoth Garjana meetings in Visakhapatnam and Kurnool, the YSRCP successfully flexed its muscle while trying hard to project the political entities opposed to decentralisation as outcasts in those regions.

But the Maha Padayatra, staged in 2022 by the Amaravati farmers and rooted to the ‘one capital movement’, certainly became a thorn in the flesh for the YSRCP and the decentralisation votaries. The Maha Padayatra was carried out from Amaravati to Arasavilli in Srikakulam district over 60 days and covering 630 km, in an attempt to garner the support of people in other regions to the ‘Save Amaravati’ campaign.

TDP’s resurgence until the Kandukur tragedy

Nara Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) could be seeing 2022 in retrospect as a ‘bitter-sweet’ year. After suffering a series of demoralising defeats in local elections until 2021, the party appeared to have put its best foot forward in 2022 as it tried hard to regroup and match the wits with its primary adversary, the YSRCP.

Party chief Chandrababu Naidu and his son Lokesh, who were criticised for running away from Andhra Pradesh at the height of the COVID-19 crisis and waging a ‘virtual’ fight from the comforts of their Hyderabad home, however hit the ground hard in 2022. Shrugging off the ignominy of local elections, Naidu was seen marshalling his troops to stage protests against the YSRCP whenever and wherever his leaders were arrested on various charges.

The TDP definitely scored some hits in relentlessly mounting an offensive and cornering its principal rival on a wide range of issues. But it also drew flak for being eternally bitter in its pathological hatred towards the YS Jagan government. The TDP leaders including Chandrababu Naidu and Lokesh were accused of running a daily malicious campaign in connivance with its favourable media, a charge that the TDP also levels against the YSRCP leaders.

The TDP may not have restored itself to its fullest past glory in Andhra Pradesh as of now and may still be many notches below the YSRCP. But a semblance of its resurgence could be witnessed in the huge turnouts at Chandrababu Naidu’s recent visits across the State. The TDP rank and file was enthused by the warm reception their leader was receiving from heavy crowds at road shows and public meetings in several districts. This is a heartening change for a party that hardly found a handful of men for Naidu’s campaign meetings during the local elections.

Despite the YSRCP claims that Chandrababu Naidu was playing his mind games in his last-gasp attempt to influence the public perception, the TDP would certainly take this into the new year as the beginning of TDP’s rise and YSRCP’s downfall.

However, the tragedy of epic proportions in Kandukuru during Chandrababu Naidu’s roadshow at the fag-end of the year has cast its shadow on the TDP’s rise from the ashes. Eight partymen losing their lives in a stampede during the ‘Idemi Kharma mana rastraniki’ protest against the YS Jagan government has added an ironic twist to the tale. The catastrophe, which revived the horrific memories of the Rajahmundry Godavari pushkarams stampede – which also incidentally happened right under Chandrababu Naidu’s nose – will be used as potent ammunition by his adversaries for the veteran leader’s remorseless lust for cheap publicity even at the cost of public safety.

TDP’s alliance syndrome continues

Chandrababu Naidu may have used every trick up his sleeves in 2022 to project the TDP on a firm comeback trail but his failure to position his party as the solitary alternative to the ruling YSRCP will also not go unnoticed. He was belligerent in attacking the YSRCP and YS Jagan but seemed timid when he frequently harped on the need for forging a united alliance with the Jana Sena and the BJP to take on the ruling party.

A few skirmishes at the local level notwithstanding, Naidu and his TDP had been careful in keeping Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena in good humour and firmly in their grasp. While maintaining his tacit understanding with the Jana Sena founder, the TDP chief, when it mattered, made no bones of his intentions to use the actor-turned-politician to once again cosy up to the BJP, which banished him following his betrayal before the 2019 elections.

As if his prayers were being answered, a few signs emerged towards the end of the year from the BJP top leadership suggesting that a thaw in relations with the TDP could well take place before the next general elections. Hints of a new-found rapprochement appeared on the horizon with the Centre suddenly giving priority to Chandrababu Naidu at key national meetings. This is also being seen as an after-effect of KCR’s BRS emerging on the national political stage.

In December, the TDP also announced the long-awaited marathon walkathon of Nara Lokesh which, he will be embarking upon in the new year. Themed Yuva Galam, the Nara scion, desperate to make his mark in AP politics, is scheduled to cover 4,000 km to surpass YS Jagan’s earlier record, in his padayatra.

Power Star and his TDP-centric politics

Old habits die hard, they say and Power Star Pawan Kalyan lived true to that adage in 2022. Just as he was always criticised since 2014, he continued to play politics in recess from his film shootings. He never made an overt attempt to get rid of the pro-TDP tag and on the contrary, he was more publicly vocal on his desire to deepen his ties with Chandrababu further.

The inconsistency and disorientation in his political thought process continued to reflect throughout the year as he kept harping on his favourite punchline that he would not allow the anti-incumbency vote of the YSRCP to split.

In yet another major chink in his armour, the actor-turned-politician expressed his wish to become the Chief Minister of the state but at the same time kept dodging the YSRCP challenge on committing to a solo fight in all the 175 seats across the state.

Ironically, like it is happening for Chandrabau Naidu, Pawan Kalyan too continued to draw huge crowds, mostly comprising his die-hard fans, at all his public appearances. Whether this is just his filmy craze or indeed a true reflection of an increased popularity among the electorate will only be known when the state goes to polls in 2024. Even before the 2019 general elections, Pawan Kalyan’s public meetings were well-attended but his party was shockingly routed all across the state.

His personal fortunes apart, his plans to two-time with the TDP and the BJP has really put him on a sticky wicket in the latter half of the year. Pawan Kalyan’s grand plans of forcing the BJP into the TDP-Jana Sena mix badly backfired a couple of months ago. His meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Visakhapatnam following Jana Sena’s ruckus in the port city coinciding with the Visakha Garjana event, came as a rude awakening. It was rumoured then that he was reportedly tutored by the most influential political figure of the country to steer clear of the TDP and focus on building a base for his own Jana Sena party for a possible alliance with the BJP in future.

The Modi meeting appeared to have cast its impact on Pawan Kalyan in its immediate aftermath but that change did not last long. His recent statements proved that he was truly enslaved to his ‘bromance’ with Chandrababu Naidu and treat the BJP only as a minnow in the mix.

BJP, Congress – the bystanders

The Bharatiya Janata Party, despite boasting of a bandwagon of leaders, has not made any significant impact on the political landscape of Andhra Pradesh in 2022. Except for the daily dose of rhetoric and symbolic protests that were mere perfunctory in nature, the state wing of the country’s ruling party failed to make its presence felt. Ever since the TDP’s drubbing in 2019, it is always rumoured that the BJP had been craving to position itself as the principal alternative in alliance with the Jana Sena but haven’t made any significant moves towards this.

As if this was not enough, the party unit is also plagued with infighting, strains of which came to the fore during the fag-end of the year. The BJP-led NDA government’s hardened stance on the Special Category Status is only making matters worse for the party’s state unit.

The humiliating experience that AP unit chief Somu Veerraju faced with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the latter’s recent visit to Visakhapatnam summed up its reputation even within the national party. Veerraju was left red-faced when he was asked by Modi to introduce himself during a meeting of the BJP leaders of the state on the occasion.

On the other hand, the Congress, wiped out of Andhra Pradesh following its bifurcation betrayal, continued to be in the incognito mode throughout 2022 with little activity worth mentioning. The only noticeable newsmaker concerning the grand-old party came in the form of the appointment of Gidugu Rudraraju as the chief of its toothless APCC.