Its testing time now for Chiranjeevi, whose programme for campaigning in Kadapa by-elections has been finalised by congress high command.
Chiranjeevi’s tour programme was finalised in a meeting between him and the chief minister on Saturday. Kiran Kumar is hopeful that Chiranjeevi would be able to rally the large number of Balija voters in the district to vote for Congress candidates D L Ravindra Reddy and Y S Vivekananda Reddy.
According to sources, Chiranjeevi will tour the constituencies in two rounds. In the first, he will kick off his campaign by taking part in the Urs of Ameenpir dargah in Kadapa on April 20 and then cover the nearby segments for the next two days. He is expected to participate in 10 to 15 road shows during his campaign. The second round will be during the last days of the campaign for the by polls which are scheduled to be held on May 8.
In contrast to the aggressive road shows by YSR Congress president Y S Jagan mohan Reddy, the ruling party is visibly lagging behind in the campaign. Jagan has been touring the district at least for the past six months on one pretext or the other, while the Congress campaign has begun only now.
Except the district leaders, the party has no star to enthuse the Congress workers who are mostly with Jagan till now. “In the district where nothing except the writ of YSR worked in the past five years leading to the disappearance of leaders from both the Congress and Telugu Desam, the party is in dire need of a star,” said a Congress leader.
Realising that no Congress leader either from New Delhi or Hyderabad can sway the voters in its favour, the party has roped in Chiranjeevi to mobilise the people. In fact, Chiranjeevi wanted to campaign in the by polls as a Congress leader, but the formal merger of Prajarajyam with the Congress has not yet been completed.
Chiranjeevi is expected to concentrate on the 1.3 lakh Balija voters in the Kadapa LS constituency. The equivalent of Kapus (to which community Chiranjeevi belongs) in Rayalaseema, the Balijas are traditional rivals of the Reddy community and YSR had ensured that the Balijas stayed marginalised during his tenure, claimed local PRP sources.
“Chiranjeevi will assure the Balijas that in the post-YSR Congress, they will be given their due recognition,” said the sources. Apart from Chiranjeevi, PRP leader and Balija leader C Ramachandraiah has also been roped in by the Congress to campaign in the bypolls.
Ramachandraiah said he has already started campaigning. “Mydukur, Duvvur, Badvel, Kalasapadu, Kadapa town, Pulivendula, Vempalli and Chakrayapeta are areas where Balijas are in big numbers. In the 2009 elections, PRP candidate Khaleel Basha managed to secure 63,000 votes without any significant campaigning,” Ramachandraiah said. This time around, our aim is to mobilise at least 80 per cent of the Balija votes for the Congress in the by polls, he added.
