The recent appointment of nearly three lakh village volunteers and another one lakh village secretaries from October is believed to be a master stroke by YSR Congress party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to retain his hold on power for the coming years.
According to political observes, the concept of village volunteers and village secretariats, if implemented properly and without giving scope for corruption, would be a game changer in the Andhra politics.
“Assuming that each village volunteer can influence at least five other members, including his family members to turn in favour of the YSR Congress party, it would create a solid vote bank of nearly 25 lakh voters for Jagan. That is a huge number for a political party,” an analyst said.
This strong force of village volunteers and village secretaries would be a sort of “Jagan army” and their job is going to be not just to ensure extension of beneficiaries of various schemes to every household, but also turn the people’s mandate towards the YSRC.
“The beneficiaries of various schemes, which will be at least five times of this number, would anyway be indebted to the Jagan government. Similarly, there are various other sections, like students, employees, women and minorities. The Jagan army will play a crucial role in influencing them to vote for YSRC in the coming years,” the analyst said.
Apparently, Jagan might even consider regularizing the services of these village volunteers and village secretaries and make them as government employees in the coming years, when the state financial position improves.
“And that will be a huge mileage for Jagan,” the analyst added.