The Andhra Pradesh Congress is reeling under a severe Jagan Mohan Reddy heat wave, and the party is preparing to tackle it before the coming local body polls. The Congress now considers Jagan’s YSR Congress (YSRC) party as its main rival in the local body polls, which are seen as a litmus test before the 2014 General Elections.
Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy told his party cadres to concentrate on cutting down the popularity of YSRC during local body polls as it would be the main rival in the ensuing General Elections, rather than the TDP.
Congress state leadership thinks winning the local bodies will pave the way to faring well in the ensuing General Elections as the electioneering during the Lok Sabha polls is mostly looked after by the representatives of local bodies.
The Congress plans to constitute village, mandal and municipality-level committees to strengthen the party at the grass-roots. After that, it will identify loyal and suitable candidates to contest for local body posts. The government will then identify the problems being faced by people in every village, mandal and municipality, and pump in funds to solve those problems. In the final step, the troika of Kiran Reddy, his deputy C Damodara Rajanarasimha and state Congress chief Botcha Satyanarayana will undertake extensive tours across the state to publicise the welfare schemes.
Meanwhile, YSRC honorary president and Pulivendula MLA Y S Vijayalakshmi has also upped the ante and asked people to give her jailed son Jagan a ‘gift’ in the form of a thumping victory for the party in the forthcoming local body elections. She also urged the party cadres to ensure a grand victory in the elections.