YSR Congress party legislators in Andhra Pradesh are now facing a peculiar problem. While striving hard to impress chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy – by taking active part in the party and government programmes, they are now under pressure to promote Sakshi Telugu daily, owned by the boss.
According to party sources, the party leadership has entrusted the MLAs with the responsibility of increasing the circulation of Sakshi daily. Each MLA has been given a target of purchasing 3,000 copies and circulate it among the people.
It would mean, each MLA has to spend around Rs 4.5 to Rs 5 lakh per month on purchasing the copies of Sakshi daily and circulate them among the people in their constituency through their followers and party leaders.
The objective of the entire exercise is not only to increase the circulation of the daily, promoted by Jagan, but also take the good work done by the government into the people, as highlighted in the newspaper.
The entire task of setting the targets to the MLAs and promoting the daily has been entrusted to a senior YSRC MLA from a Rayalaseema district. This MLA is considered very close to the chief minister and calls the shots in the chief minister’s office.
However, sources said many of the YSRC MLAs are not keen on doing promoters’ job for Sakshi and are ignoring the instructions from the leader close to the chief minister.
They are not keen on spending nearly Rs 5 lakh per month on Sakshi daily and distribute the papers among the people.
“This forcible circulation may even backfire on us. Moreover, it may not be correct to think that people would get carried away by newspaper reports and cast their votes,” a party leader said.
