AP Politics - Part-1

The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it here for reference:

The electorate for the election of President of India are the elected MLAs and MPs. During the vote for Presidential elections in June 2022, there was only one state in the entire country where 100% of the electorate voted for Draupadi Murmu. Andhra Pradesh.

AP has zero BJP MLAs, zero BJP MPs elected to Lok Sabha. The two parties that made up more than 99% of this electorate – the YSRCP, the TDP – are not part of the NDA. In fact, we are all now very familiar at the vitriol TDP spewed on Modi and the drubbing they received at the elections in 2019. Both the ruling YSRCP and the opposing TDP have supported the Modi government on many key legislations as and when required – that is a support of 25 Lok Sabha MPs and 11 Rajya Sabha MPs.

If one looks back over the past 4.5 years, there are probably two states in the country that have garnered the least amount of space in the media outside of their states. Andhra Pradesh and Odisha – the two states that went to simultaneous polls with Lok Sabha in 2019. To an extent, I understand the least amount of interest in Odisha, because of the predictability of the political victor there and the near total absence of controversial events. In contrast, Andhra Pradesh provided for very intriguing political stories and enough controversies, and yet hasn’t been able to make it to the non-telugu media in the country.

I am also equally guilty of not writing enough about AP in the past 4.5 years. And thus, is born this three part-series (1, 2, 3) on the politics of Andhra Pradesh in the past 4.5 year. I will try to weave various major events over the past 4.5 years from the lens of the three major political forces in the state – the YSRCP, the TDP and the Jana Sena party.

The ruling YSRCP

Jagan Mohan Reddy won 151 out of the 175 seats in the 2019 assembly elections. The massive mandate presented him a very good and perhaps rare opportunity to turn around the fortunes of the newly formed state of Andhra Pradesh. While, in 6 months from now, we will know if the people think he utilised this rare opportunity to transform the state, it is useful to recollect the content of his massive ads in newspapers all along these 4 years.

You can pick any ad of his government over the past 4 years – and you can see how he has distributed money to the people. There are ads that delve into details of one single scheme and then there are ads that summarize all schemes. The free schemes target most sections of the society. In fact, a whole new segment of employment has been created by this government – village volunteers! A village volunteer is appointed with a salary of about 5000 per month and the job is to make sure beneficiaries are receiving the intended benefits! While this sounded exciting at the beginning, it didn’t take too long for people to realise that this is a mere short term employment prospect with no real growth!

The gist of all of the ads are the same – wealth distribution to the people – mostly in the form of money or partly in the form of infrastructure. You would obviously wonder where the money is coming from, to be given away. Andhra Pradesh has the highest fuel prices in the country. The government also ventured into the liquor business and gets revenue from that sector! And then there is real estate of course.

Jagan’s “mark governance” was a slogan that the YSRCP toyed for a brief while. They perhaps gave it up when YSRCP proudly claimed that Jagan announced “Power Holidays for industries” as if it was a benefit he bestowed! His “mark governance” has also been marred by many controversies starting with the 3-capitals plan for Andhra Pradesh. The plan is currently on hold because the High Court has given a ruling against it. We had written in detail about the egotistic plan earlier, so we will not delve into it any further.

Bigger controversies awaited him. Infact, the palace intrigue of Y.S.Jagan Mohan Reddy beats the best written TV shows. Y.S. Vivekananda, who is Jagan's own uncle (his father's brother), was murdered in March 2019. Y.S. Viveka's daughter had to approach the High Court to get a CBI enquiry done. In her petition to the court, she submitted a damning statement on Jagan too. On April 16, 2022 - the CBI arrested Y.S.Viveka's cousin brother - Y.S.Bhaskar Reddy as the main conspirator of this murder! Who is Bhaskar Reddy? Bhaskar Reddy is Jagan's wife's own uncle (mother's brother!). Bhaskar Reddy's son, Avinash Reddy is the current YSRCP MP from Kadapa constituency! Head spins while trying to figure out the scale of this intrigue. We aren’t done yet!

Jagan’s own sister, Y.S.Sharmila, broke ties with him and established her own party in Telangana. In a damning interview to a news channel, it was clear that the break up was anything but pleasant. Jagan’s mother sided with her daughter. Jagan’s mother was honorary President of the YSRCP. She had to quit that post in order to side with her daughter! In summary, Jagan broke ties with his mother and sister; and has his close relatives in jail in case related to the murder of his own uncle.

Jagan faces the exact same criticism that KCR faced – that he is not accessible to his MLAs; and that he doesn’t even meet the people of the state. There is talk about severe discontent in the party because he intends to replace as many as 80 sitting MLAs for the 2024 elections. Jagan also has distributed unbelievable amounts of money as part of government schemes, just like KCR has. The distribution of wealth hasn’t been enough for KCR to win back power. The Jagan  government’s focus on wealth distribution and lack of focus on wealth creation has certainly angered sections of the citizenry. While opinion poll after opinion poll (including one in this month) have told that the YSRCP will win 22 to 25 seats in the Lok Sabha from AP (total of 25 seats), the rising anger was evident from the fact that the YSRCP lost all 3 MLC seats in the Graduate constituency elections that were held in 2022, to the TDP.

Ah, the TDP 😊. The fluctuating fortunes of the TDP over its 40-year-old history are well documented. Chandrababu Naidu has been at the helm of the party for nearly 28 years in these 40 years. And has overseen 2 victories and 3 crushing defeats in assembly elections. The 2019 was the worst. In part-2 of this series, we will talk more about how TDP fared after the 2019 debacle.