An army of volunteers stare at a bleak future

Visakhapatnam : Beingquite confident that they would be voted back to power, the YSRCP made a section of volunteers resign by force.

However, with the alliance government emerging victorious in the 2024 polls, the future of the volunteers appears to be bleak.

Following the directions of the Election Commission that the service of the volunteers should not be entertained in the election process, the YSRCP leaders encouraged the volunteers to resign to their posts and work for the party instead. A few weeks before the elections, a section of the volunteers submitted their resignation letters as requested.

The first-of-its-kind system introduced by the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government played an imperative role not just to take welfare schemes to the masses but also aid in getting the benefits at the doorstep of the beneficiaries.

In the process, the volunteers got close to the voters as well. For any requirement at the ward level, volunteers used to be the first point of contact for the constituents to approach and get their problems resolved.

An army of volunteers, who have served the YSRCP for the past five years, have become hardcore fans of the party. Time to time, they have been pampered with generous gifts and goodies by the constituency in-charges and MLAs. The volunteers too worked as party activists.

Much before the service of the volunteers were instructed to suspend by the EC during polls, the contested candidates offered cash prizes ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 to the volunteers directing them to build rapport with the voters.

After the EC’s direction, a majority of candidates forced the volunteers to submit their resignation and join the election campaign. While some volunteered to campaign, others joined later by force. A few of the volunteers refused to submit their resignation.

Meanwhile, the alliance party leaders assured that the volunteer system will be continued and their salary would be doubled once their government is formed in Andhra Pradesh. Despite the assurance, the volunteers reposted faith in the YSRCP and hence submitted their resignation.

After the formation of the alliance government, the volunteers are now paying repeated visits to MLAs and TDP leaders’ offices and appealing to them to continue their service. They attributed their resignation to the YSRCP’s pressure.

However, the TDP cadre is not keen on accepting their requests as they were once YSRCP-pro and assume that their affiliation with the party might continue in future as well. With no assurance coming from the new government so far, the future of the volunteers turns out to be a big question mark.