Vijayawada: Y.S. Vijayalakshmi, popularly known as Vijayamma, resigning as the honorary president of the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) has signalled the attempts of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to emerge from the shadow of his father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) and emerge as a leader unto himself.
The development, which took place on the first day of the YSRCP’s plenary on Friday, also indicated that the party is confident that it can come back to power in Andhra Pradesh with Jagan’s brand image as the driving force. During the plenary, he was elected ‘lifetime president’ of the party.
Vijayamma’s exit has ensured that Jagan is the only claimant to YSR’s legacy in the party. After all, she was the party’s honorary president since its foundation more than a decade ago. Jagan’s sister Sharmila Reddy, who played a crucial role in the party’s early years, was sidelined and floated her own party, YSR Telangana Party, last year.
After YSR’s tragic demise in a chopper crash in 2009, Jagan nursed the ambition of becoming the chief minister. But the Congress high command did not agree, and launched the YSRCP in March 2011. He was jailed in a disproportionate assets case.
During this period. Sharmila, Vijayamma and Y.V. Subba Reddy (Vijayamma’s brother-in-law) took on the mantle of leading the party.
Sharmila even launched a marathon 3000 km padayatra and campaigned for the party.
After Jagan was released on bail, he revamped the party organisation to reduce the influence of Sharmila’s group. Subba Reddy, who was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2014, was denied a ticked in 2019. Subsequently, Jagan gave more responsibilities to Rajya Sabha member V. Vijasai Reddy and Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy.
Y.S. Sharmila Reddy launches the YSR Telangana Party in Hyderabad, July 8, 2021. Photo: PTI
Though Vijayamma’s resignation has been presented as voluntary, Jagan is also accused by some of sidelining his mother.
Seeing no scope for her to grow in the YSRCP, Sharmila floated a party to try and capitalise on her father’s legacy in Telangana – apparently against the wishes of her brother. Vijayamma, who was reduced to a figurehead in the YSRCP, nurtured her daughter’s political ambitions. She also justified her resignation from the YSRCP by saying that her daughter needs her more.
G. Valliswar, who served as YSR’s chief public relations officer during the leader’s stint as chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, said that Sharmila could have emerged as a parallel power centre in the YSRCP because of her dynamism and leadership abilities. “That is the reason why Jagan deftly kept his sister out,” he told The Wire. Whether it is the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the YSRCP or any other regional party, the emergence of parallel power centres is a threat to the leader at the helm, Valliswar said.
Jagan now supreme in YSRCP
During the party plenary, the YSR Congress Parliamentary Party leader V. Vijayasai Reddy piloted a proposal to anoint Jagan as lifetime president. It was duly ratified. With this, Jagan becomes the supreme leader of the party and will not need to face internal elections.
This is a significant depature from the party’s previous path, when Jagan, his mother and sister remained the party’s star campaigners. And they banked on YSR’s legacy, promising to enact popular policy measures like waiving agricultural loans, free education and subsidising healthcare. The images of Rajasekhara Reddy featured prominently in the party’s campaign material in the 2014 assembly and general elections.
But all such expectations went awry and even Vijayamma failed to win the Lok Sabha election from Visakhapatnam.
The party’s reworked its strategy. In the run-up to the 2019 elections, Jagan’s leadership also found its place alongside the legacy of YSR. ‘Rajanna Rajyam’ or YSR’s rule was the party’s buzzword in 2014, which was replaced by ‘Kavali Jagan, Ravali Jagan‘, meaning ‘We want Jagan, Jagan should come to power’.
Prashant Kishor’s prescription
The YSRCP’s fight in the 2019 election also capitalised on the anti-incumbency sentiment against the N. Chandrababu Naidu government. The people of the state were hugely disappointed by Naidu’s failure to realise the promises that were made when Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated. The TDP, which was a coalition partner of the NDA, also failed in getting special category status for the residual state, which Jagan promised he would oversee.
Jagan, a Christian, was also projected as culturally a Hindu as prescribed by the poll consultant Prashant Kishor, said Raka Sudhakar, an analyst. The party’s failure in the 2014 election was attributed by Kishor’s team to Vijayamma appearing with a Bible in hand in political campaigns, it is said. As a result, she was asked to stay away from electioneering in 2019. Sharmila was also sidelined from party campaigns.
After the YSRCP swept the elections in 2019, YSR’s image took the backseat in publicity material, making way for Jagan. It was Kishor’s suggestion to give the party a makeover, building Jagan as the party’s brand instead of YSR, Raka observed.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy with his mother Y.S. Vijayalakshmi during a function in Amravati, Friday, July 8, 2022. Photo: PTI
Setting the tone for the next polls
On the last day of the plenary, there was further evidence of this makeover ahead of the 2024 elections. Reddy began his address by presenting himself as your “Jagan anna (elder brother), Jagan tammudu (younger brother) and Jagan koduku (son)” in an attempt to reach out to people of all ages – a departure from his earlier preference to refer to himself only as Jagan anna.
The tone and tenor of the plenary suggest that the YSRCP is likely to fight the next election on three issues: showcasing the performance of the Jagan government in the last five years, presenting him as pro-poor and projecting his rival Naidu as anti-poor and one who promotes corporate companies.
Jagan in his address said his government gave a boost to government schools, where the children from poor families study through the Nadu-Nedu programme. Chandrababu Naidu, during his tenure, patronised the educational institutes of corporate giants like Narayana and Chaitanya, he claimed.
The Andhra Pradesh chief minister also trumpeted his other schemes for marginalised and disadvantaged communities. students studying in government schools, Reddy said his government has also introduced nine schemes – dubbed Navaratnalu – which include financial assitance to farmers, building homes, education in English medium and financial assitance for education.
