HYDERABAD: Lack of comprehension of issues, arrogance of leaders and communication gap between leaders and the cadre were the main reasons being cited for the electoral debacle of the Praja Rajyam Party by analysts within and outside the party.
With the hustle and bustle of the election coming to an end, a postmortem of sorts took place on factors that led the party to disaster.
While Chiranjeevi himself and his close aides tried to study several important factors that led to the party’s dismal show, party leaders, political analysts and leaders from other parties came out with their own reasons. According to analysts, the main reason for the debacle is the lack of comprehension of issues and ground situation on the part of Chiranjeevi and his staunch loyalists. Chiranjeevi never bothered about the vote base of other parties and thought that his charisma will see the party through in the elections. They built castles in the air without realising that there was no vote bank for the party.
The Megastar believed that the voters were vexed with the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party and thus would vote for him en masse. The 60 lakh fans would become the vote transferrers making it very easy to get 1.5 crore votes to win the elections. They thought BC votes would further consolidate their position as there were about 119 constituencies in the State which had a strong presence of Munnuru Kapu, Mudiraj, Turpu Kapu, Koppula Velama and Balija which were closely related to the Kapu community to which Chiranjeevi belonged. However, all these calculations went awry, according to analysts.
Further, the dominance of Chiranjeevi and his kith and kin did a lot of damage to the party. The PRP president confined himself to the coterie and was not accessible to others. He never took suggestions from leaders and intellectual friends and this resulted in a communication gap and left the cadre direction-less, the analysts felt.
The gross neglect of fans didn’t help the party either as they failed to live up to the expecations as vote transferrers. People turned up in large numbers at every rally organised by the party president across the State, but the fans and grassroot-level activists were not guided properly in converting those crowds into votes, some leaders opined.
The high-sounding speeches of Chiranjeevi also appear to have done some damage. Instead of touching the hearts of the people by broaching the local issues and problems, he indulged in empty rhetoric - statements like “you asked me to come into politics so I am here; I would come back as victor” - which obviously did not cut much ice with the voters.