Post date: May 14, 2011 5:54:57 AM
Though the grand old Congress party is in a denial mode, the writing on the wall was clear even before the election results were out. The `Kadapa atma gouravam' (self-pride) won hands down against `Delhi ahamkaram' (arrogance) and Jaganmohan Reddy had made no bones about this factor during his intense campaigning.
While Jagan would now spare no efforts to claim that he's the true inheritor of YSR legacy as he had projected this bypoll as a fight between Sonia Gandhi and YSR legacy. But what stood out in the landslide victory for the YSR Congress chief was the resolve of the electorate to teach a fitting lesson to Sonia Gandhi and her cronies for the `ill-treatment' meted out to YSR family after the demise of Rajasekhara Reddy. "Sympathy was never a factor as my father died two years ago. I feel this election was fought on emotion and treachery of the Congress high command to create rift in our family," Jagan told TOI during one of his road shows in Kadapa.
The emotion was nothing but the `insult' heaped on the YSR family by the AICC chief by not giving an audience to YSR's widow Vijayamma and her son Jagan in Delhi. "People weren't willing to pardon Sonia Gandhi for keeping Vijayamma waiting for her. A widow was in grief and Sonia Gandhi had no business to insult her, which is against our culture. The electorate gave a resounding verdict against the Congress chief who tried to stifle Jagan," observed Jagan loyalist and ex-mayor of Vijayawada Tadi Sakuntala.
Though it's too early to say that Jagan factor would demolish the Congress in the state, another factor which worked for the YSR Congress was the personalised campaign of Jagan in contrast with the negative canvassing and mudslinging tactics of both the Congress and TDP. "Instead of raising local issues, both these parties harped on corrupt practices of Jagan and YSR family and paid a heavy price. The electorate was completely swayed by Jagan wave and the ill-treatment meted out to his family," Narasimha Rao, political analyst, reasoned.
It also goes without saying that Jagan's personalised campaign by projecting himself as the true heir of YSR and as the one who would take forward all his late father's welfare schemes has struck a chord with the voter. "People perceive him as a leader who would stand by them in their hour of grief. With the Congress government giving a slow burial to all YSR schemes, they believe only Jagan had the wherewithal to complete the task which YSR had set out to do," PRP MLA and Jagan camper Sobha Nagi Reddy asserted.