The first day first show of YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy's padayatra, starting from Idupulapaya in Kadapa district might have evoked a lot of euphoria among the party workers.
Going by the crowds and the arrangements made for the yatra, one can say it is a big hit on the day one.
However, after seeing the public meeting of Jagan at Idupulapaya, analysts felt that he is exhausting all his weapons to attack his arch rival – Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
There was nothing new in the speech of Jagan – either in content or in aggression -- as he repeated the same old allegations and threw the same old challenges which the ruling party has been ignoring.
According to the schedule released by the YSR Congress party, Jagan will address 125 such public meetings besides over 200 road-side meetings during his padayatra.
And he will have to speak the same text again and again, unless Naidu commits more and more mistakes during this period. This will naturally be boring for the people.
“So, the best way to get into the hearts of the people is that Jagan should talk less and walk more. He doesn’t have to tell the people repeatedly that Naidu has failed to fulfil the promises made in the manifesto and that he has not done anything for the people in the last three years.
He has to interact with the people and get the answers from them against the government. Like his father Y S Rajasekhar Reddy did, Jagan should walk into the people, sit with them, sleep in their huts and dine with them, so that the people will identify with him. Otherwise, they may feel it routine with his speeches,” an analyst observed.
Unfortunately, Jagan seems to be more interested in putting up a road show rather than a real walk into the hearts of the people.
Going by the programme of action released by the party, the local MLAs and leaders have to mobilise crowds to his padayatra and meetings.
As we have seen, the local leaders arranged youth on either side of the road with flowers in the baskets, so that when Jagan comes there, they would shower flowers on him. Such gimmicks will only send negative messages into the people.
“The padayatra should be natural and not look artificial with mobilised crowds. It is better Jagan learnt from the padayatra of his father,” the analyst added.
