Nellore: Turnout for the Praja Sankalpa Yatra by YSRC chief Jagan Mohan Reddy in Nellore district has been causing jitters to the TD leaders of the district.
The opposition leader received rousing reception in Sullurpeta, Gudur and Venkatagiri constituencies that he has covered so far. The enthusiasm shown by the public continued on Wednesday whem he entered Sarveypalli segment.
While in 2014 YSRC nominees won Sullurpeta and Gudur elections in 2014, the Gudur legislator Pasam Suneel Kumar defected to TD. His departure, however, did not make much difference to YSRC going by the huge attendance for the public meeting of Jagan at the constituency headquarters in Gudur on Sunday.
In case of Saveypalli segment, there was a huge attendance for a public meeting held at Podalakur on Wednesday evening.
TD is more worried about the response from women to Jagan. Women and youth were seen vying with each other to shake hands and take a selfie with the YSRC chief in manyplaces.
A school teacher in Sullurpeta constituency, J. Jayakar, said people are voluntarily coming for Jagan's programmes while pointing to gathering for his roadside meetings.
A TD leader said YSR Congress is in a better position then their party in several constituencies because of differences between TD leaders at the constituency level and lack of strong leadership at district level.
A senior TD leader and former legislator Mungamuru Sreedhar Krishna Reddy observed that the turnout for such programmes cannot be taken as vote share.
He said there were big crowds for Jagan during his 17 days campaign in Nandyal yet YSRC failed to win. He attributed the multitude of people coming to Jagan Padayatra to large population of Christians and Muslim communities in Nellore district apart from Kurnool, Kadapa and Prakasam districts.
He said these sections are against BJP and would naturally prefer Jagan because of TD's alliance with BJP. He added that the trend would reverse if YSRC joins hands with BJP.
