VIJAYAWADA : TDP’s ‘self-goal’ with regard to volunteers has reportedly improved the YSRC’s graph over the past few weeks. Leaders of the ruling party are of the view that the yellow party has committed a ‘political blunder’ by barring volunteers from disbursing pensions at the doorstep of the beneficiaries.
YSRC leaders also claim that the damage control measures taken up by the TDP leadership now is a futile exercise. “Not just in rural areas, neutral voters in urban areas, too, have started to shift towards the YSRC,” a senior leader said.
Speaking to TNIE, YSRC general secretary Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy pointed out that after four-and-a-half years, pensioners, particularly the elderly, have experienced the days of TDP rule where they used to wait at government offices for hours together in the scorching sun.
Stating that it was foolish on part of the TDP to level allegations against volunteers, Sajjala questioned, “How can volunteers, who have been delivering pensions at the doorstep of beneficiaries for more than four-and-a-half years, influence people in the last one month?”
Terming the allegations of the TDP and its allies regarding volunteers indulging in anti-social activities baseless, the YSRC leader sought to know, “If they are collecting sensitive data or entering households in the absence of the men, will people allow them to do so for so many years?”
He further said the YSRC need not solely depend on volunteers to tell people about its welfare schemes. “We have a proper organisational set up with booth committees at the ground level. Besides them, we have Gruha Saradhulu who are linked to village and ward secretariats. Moreover, there are three in-charges at the secretariat level. If you take any 50 houses, at least four of our party workers are in touch with the households,” he explained.
Claiming that the TDP’s promise to increase the honorarium for volunteers would not do any good for the party, Sajjala said, “Even if the alliance continues to utilise the services of volunteers, they will make them like the previous Janmabhoomi Committees and provide the `10,000 honorarium to them. People are vexed with such committees and they are not going to believe Naidu on this.”