YSR Congress president and MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who is set to commence on a six-month-long padayatra from Monday, is attempting to revive the memories of his late father and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who had undertaken a similar walkathon 14 years ago.
Jagan wil begin his padayatra from his family estate Idupulapaya in Kadapa district after prayers at his late father’s memorial at 9am and cover the entire Rayala Seema region. He will then proceed to the north coastal tip, Ichhapuram in Srikakulam district by end of April 2017. The total distance he will cover is around 3,000 km—the longest ever distance traversed by any politician in the state, claim sources close to him.
There is a sentiment in AP that whoever undertook a padayatra since 20014 came to power. Rajasekhara Reddy, who at the age of 56 walked a distance of around 1,457 km in the hot summer of April 2003 for about two months, secured power in 2004 and became the CM.
TDP president Chandrababu Naidu, who lost two elections in 2004 and 2009, had undertaken a padayatra in October 2013 and covered a distance of around 2,500 km from Telangana to coastal Andhra in three months. He became the CM after the 2014 elections, albeit to a truncated Andhra Pradesh. At the time of his walkathon, Naidu was 62 and suffering from diabetes and blood pressure problem.
Jagan, 44, has decided to set out on a longer padyatra than that undertaken by the two former CMs.
His election campaign strategist, Prashant Kishor’s Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) is coordinating the route map and nitty-gritty of his padayatra.
Jagan, who had announced a spate of welfare schemes and freebies to people at his party plenary in July, would be highlighting that to the people, besides gaining first-hand information about their problems. But according to sources from the I-PAC, Jagan would mostly be trying to rekindle the memories of his late father.
“Jagan would be covering more number of villages and Assembly constituencies than his father. But wherever he goes, he will recollect the bonding his father had with the place and its people. We are ensuring that he would garland his father’s statues erected to mark his 2003 padayatra,” said a party functionary.
However, unlike this father and Naidu, Jagans’ padayatra would be interrupted every Friday as the CBI court hasn’t granted him exemption from personal appearance in a clutch of disproportionate assets cases before it. He will have to take a break from his padayatra every Thursday night to rush back to Hyderabad.
Jagan’s aides and I-PAC team members are tight-lipped on his mode of transport to and fro from Hyderabad, but they hinted at hiring a helicopter to save travel time.
While all arrangements are in place for the event, YSR Congress leaders are apprehensive that the ruling TDP might create obstacles. The police is insisting that Jagan should take permission for his route map as well as public meetings he intends to address at various places in the next six months. YSR Congress spokesman Ambati Ramababu told this newspaper that the TDP was afraid of Jagan’s walkathon.
TDP general secretary Varla Ramaiah refuted the charge and said that it was the responsibility of the police to ensure smooth passage of vehicles and people on the roads where Jagan would walk. “If an opposition leader refused to take police permission for his padayatra how can people trust him to lead the state?” asked Ramaiah during a press conference in Amaravati on Saturday. Meanwhile, the TDP has admitted an YSR Congress MLA V, Rajeswarai from Rampachodavaram (ST) into the ruling party. Sources said that the TDP is keen on admitting into its fold a few more YSR Congress MLAs to demoralise Jagan.