Candidates busy in holding secret parleys as campaign reaches feverish pitch

Anantapur/Puttaparthi: The twin districts of Anantapur and Sri Sathya Sai are witnessing hectic campaigning which has reached a feverish pitch of late, with just two more days for the curtains to fall on campaigning by the candidates for the 2024 AP State Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Campaigning by candidates of all 14 Assembly constituencies and 2 Lok Sabha constituencies has reached a feverish pitch and many candidates have covered their constituencies more than once.

The candidates of YSRCP, TDP and BJP are now embarking on votes management, polling and booth management.

Now secret parleys are in progress with opinion leaders of caste, community, religion and people's organisations to firm up support to the parties and candidates concerned.

The candidates are burning mid-night oil deliberating with party poll managers and opinion leaders to pass on the message and dictums by leaders to the ground level.

Some leaders with following and opinion leaders in minorities and caste and community are also switching on loyalties in the last minute due to dissatisfaction in cash disbursal issues and complaints by party workers against leaders working at cross purposes etc.

While candidates are engaged in campaigning during the day, all secret parleys and voters management is taking place during nights. “We are hardly sleeping for two hours between 2 am and 5 am as by 6 am we have to hit the roads,” stated a TDP candidate.

As the countdown for the polling day has started, family members of the candidates are swinging into action meeting women and men voters door-to-door soliciting their support.

The high voltage propaganda and frequent assertions and declarations by TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan that they are destined to storm to power seems to have given a sense of over-confidence to the average party workers of TDP.

For Jana Sena Party, enthusiasm is lacking because JSP activists did not get a single Assembly seat in the two districts. The BJP got just one seat, which is Dharmavaram. The BJP has diverted all its manpower to Dharmavaram in support of BJP candidate Satya Kumar. In all other 13 Assembly constituencies, the BJP's presence is minimal and they are maintaining a distance from the TDP-JSP.

While the whole focus of the YSRCP and their campaigns centred around their government's performance. Their confidence of returning to power was based on the welfare bonanza heaped on the voters.

For the TDP & Co, their confidence of storming back to power is based on several factors including anti-incumbency, Naidu's leadership and administrative skills, their manifesto is believed to be making waves and Super Six guarantees.

A political observer however questioned whether the people believe that the TDP manifesto would be implemented in toto. So it is up to the TDP to make people believe that it means business with the manifesto, he muttered.