As the YSR Congress party is gearing up for the mega show “Siddham” at Raptadu in Anantapur district on Sunday, all eyes are on party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on what he would announce as part of the election manifesto to be released there.
According to sources close to Tadepalli camp office, Jagan is likely to announce crop loan waiver up to Rs 1 lakh, which is going to be the master stroke to attract the farming community towards his party in the coming elections.
Second promise he is going to make will be free travel for women in the APSRTC bus services. However, unlike in Telangana where it is free bus travel for woman irrespective of the days or time, Jagan is likely to make it conditional – maybe, only on certain days of the week and only in certain buses.
There are likely to be some other sops up the sleeve of Jagan and he is likely to announce them as part of his party’s election manifesto, from the stage of Siddham meeting, sources said.
The YSRC government has successfully implemented Navaratnalu. Every programme and scheme reached the doorsteps of the beneficiaries in the past five years. So, he has the credibility and people will believe he will implement his new promises as well, a party source said.
Senior YSRC leader and state power minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, who is overseeing the meeting at Raptadu said Jagan would send a strong message to the opposition parties who are hurling “baseless allegations” and its media “that is ignoring the huge benefits that all sections of the people were deriving from the various schemes.”
These schemes, the party stresses, were implemented “without irregularity of even a single paisa.” In a similar way, the YSRC is firm on announcing a manifesto with additional benefits to farmers and other sections of the people.
“Even after the TD and JS announced several sops by copying the Congress manifesto from Karnataka, we have a clear agenda of announcing meaningful sops in the manifesto. We would also create awareness among the people against cheating by TD and its allied parties,” Reddy said.
