As the exercise of selection of candidates in the YSR Congress party is coming to a close, party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is getting ready for hitting the road for one last time before the elections.
Starting January 25, Jagan is embarking on a state-wide tour, addressing rallies and road shows for election campaign covering all the 26 districts.
Andhra Pradesh will go to polls along with 2024 general elections, mostly in the last week of March or first week of April.
So far, Jagan has finalised in-charges (probable contestants) in 59 places, including nine MP seats. The YSR Congress has yet to finalise the candidates for the remaining seats — 16 MP seats and 125 MLA seats.
According to party sources, Jagan will tour two districts every day, for which the party campaign managers are finalising the route map. A formal announcement on the electioneering will be announced soon, party leaders said.
Jagan has taken a calculated risk in the selection of candidates, as he realised that the only way to come back to power is to change the candidates in the constituencies where the party is on a weak footing.
“When the sitting MLAs stand no chance of winning, there is no point in continuing them, despite their loyalty to the party. If the strategy of changing the candidates works out, the party will win the elections. There is nothing to lose,” he said.
In any case, Jagan is bracing up to fight a lone battle. It remains to be seen whether his gamble works out or not.