There was no blaring music and cacophony usually associated with the conventional poll campaign.
CPI(M) nominee Nellore Yadagiri’s campaign was unique in many ways as he made farmers, farm workers, industrial workers and others to ponder over serious issues concerning them.
Mr. Yadagiri, who was at his best to impress upon fellow toiling workers, was floored by the generosity of a tenant farmer, Jyothi Sivakumar, at farm on the outskirts of Gudur.
Farmer’s gesture
The 52-year-old farmer not only lent an ear to the CPI(M) candidate, who explained the ill-effects of the three new farm laws enacted by the Centre, but also went to the extent of donating paddy to meet poll expenses.
Mr. Yadagiri impressed upon a group of farm workers at Manubolu saying attempts by the “communal BJP” to open its account in Andhra Pradesh from Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency should be stopped at any cost.
Interacting with another group of farm workers toiling in a field unmindful of the scorching summer heat, he said both the regional parties – the YSRCP and the TDP – have failed to rise to the occasion when the BJP was all out to use the byelection as a springboard to catapult to power in the State.
“The Left democratic alternative is the need of the hour to protect the interests of the toiling masses,” he emphasised.
Coordinating the campaign in the seven Assembly segments, including four in Nellore district, CPI(M) Central Committee member V. Srinivasa Rao said both the parties, for reasons best known to them, supported the “sectarian agenda” of the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre in Parliament.
‘What happened to SCS?’
The YSRCP, to which the people gave 22 MP seats carried away by its poll promise to fight for Special Category Status (SCS) forcefully, did little to achieve it after coming to power, he alleged.
The Jagan Mohan Reddy Government in the State was bent upon fixing smart meters to the farm pumpsets in tune with the Centre’s move to amend the Electricity Act to phase out subsidies, he added.
The assurances given to the State at the time of bifurcation, including the Bundlekhand-like special package to seven districts and a central port of Dugarajapatnam, remained on paper, he lamented.
The saffron party had chosen Tirupati to make inroads into the State and further its “communal” agenda, he alleged.
Privatisation move
Now, the Centre was mulling privatisation of the prestigious Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota and take over the TTD by forming a trust on the lines of the one for construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya, he charged.
Urging the Election Commission to ensure a level-playing field to all the parties, he expressed fear that the YSRCP would misuse the official machinery, including police and the volunteers in the village secretariats, to threaten people with stopping welfare scheme benefits as it allegedly did during the local body elections.
