Vijayawada: YSRC aspirants and leaders are turning miserly as talk of a ‘Jagan wave’ is gathering ground, refusing to spend money as the campaign for the April 11 elections enters its crucial last week.
Boosted by certain surveys, candidates feel that with the huge support for YSRC president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy among the masses, they can easily coast to victory.
Candidates who had earlier planned to spend money on par with Telugu Desam candidates are now changing their minds. This is causing worry in the party ranks because the YSRC lost 46 seats due to a narrow difference in the voting percentage due to wrong poll management and overconfidence in 2014.
In the previous election, all YSRC candidates lost by less than 10,000 votes. A break-up shows the YSRC lost nine seats by less than 3,000 votes, 13 seats by fewer than 6,000 votes, 15 seats by a margin of less than 8,000 votes and seven seats by less than 10,000 votes.
This was attributed to candidates taking it easy in the final days as also not heeding poll management advice. A senior YSRC leader on condition of anonymity alleged that the TD candidates were targeting small and medium-sized social groups for support and even groups of individuals with five to 30 votes.
He said that YSRC leaders were banking on the ‘Jagan wave’ in five to six Assembly constituencies in every district in this election. He said that a majority of candidates had conducted some surveys in their constituencies which showed that the YSRC was in a strong position.
On reading the survey reports, they were reluctant to spend money on poll management. He said this overconfidence would give the TD a chance to strike in the last few days of the campaign. Party leaders are asking the high command to tell the candidates to put in all efforts to win the polls.
