It is an open secret that the ruling Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh headed by chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has the strong backing of several media houses, prominent among them being Eenadu daily, ETV, Andhra Jyothy daily, ABN Andhra Jyothy, TV5 and NTV channels.
There are other English and Telugu newspapers that have largely adopted pro-Telugu Desam Party stand.
Naidu’s political rivals, particularly YSR Congress party headed by Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, have been describing these media houses as “yellow media.”
The YSRC leaders accuse them of propagating only the TDP and not giving any coverage to Jagan’s programmes.
Especially during his marathon padayatra that went on for over a year, these channels and newspapers have hardly dedicated any space and time for it.
Till the other day, TV9 was also considered part of the yellow media brigade till the other day.
On many occasions, Jagan openly gave a call to his party leaders and cadre to boycott these media channels, including TV9, for ignoring him and his party, while giving massive coverage to Naidu.
On Monday, Jagan, while addressing the neutral voters at Anantapur as part of Jagan Anna Pilupu programme, raised the topic of boycotting the yellow media again.
He cautioned the voters to be wary of media houses like Eenadu, Andhra Jyothy, TV5 and others, which are promoting the TDP and Chandrababu Naidu.
He asked them not to get carried away by the publicity blitzkrieg by these channels for Naidu.
Interestingly, Jagan conveniently ignored mentioning the name of TV9 while referring to these yellow media.
The reason was obvious: TV9 has now gone into the hands of new promoters who are closer to Telangana Rashtra Samithi leadership, which in turn, is getting closer to Jagan and his party of late.
Secondly, TV9 channel, on Monday, gave extensive live coverage to Jagan’s meeting at Ananapur, while ignoring Naidu’s Dharma Porata Deeksha in New Delhi that has caught the attention of all national channels.
So, the changed political equations in the Telugu states has made TV9 a favourite channel for YSRC!