VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has asked the party leaders not to lower the guard and ensure that the party wins the October 30 Badvel Assembly by-election with a huge margin.
“The party had won the seat with a majority of over 44,000 votes and this time, the margin should be even more,’’ Jagan said at a meeting of the party leaders in which Dr Sudha, widow of Dr Venkatasubbaiah whose demise necessitated the bypoll, also took part.
During the meeting, Jagan directed the party leaders to take measures to increase the voting percentage. In the 2019 elections, the voting percentage stood at 77 per cent and it should be increased this time, he said. On the strategy to be adopted, Jagan asked party leaders to visit every household in the constituency at least thrice before the campaign ends and convince the electorate to cast their votes in favour of the ruling party. “Every leader should allocate this one month completely for the party’s victory,’’ he said.
Stating that senior leader and Panchayat Raj Minister Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy would be the in-charge of the election, the Chief Minister said the leaders should publicise the welfare schemes being implemented by the government. Jagan wanted the party leaders to start poll-related activities from Monday.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Government Chief Whip G Srikanth Reddy exuded confidence that the party will win the by-election with a huge majority and slammed both TDP and Jana Sena leaders for allegedly playing caste politics.
The two-year rule of Jagan has received well across the State, he said. “As instructed by the Chief Minister, all the government programmes and welfare initiatives will be explained to every household. Like no other government in the country, the YSRC government in AP has directly credited over `1,00,000 crore into the accounts of the beneficiaries and fulfilled over 98 per cent of promises made in the party manifesto,’’ he claimed.
He said that in the past two years, the YSRC won all the elections with 85-95 per cent majority. Out of 13,000 sarpanch posts, 10,500 sarpanches belong to the YSRC and 9,600 MPTCs, 631 ZPTCs, 634 MPPs, 13 ZP Chairpersons, 518 corporators, 1,800 counsellors and 74 Municipal Chairpersons are from the ruling party.