Andhra Pradesh election campaign diary

[koustubbhargav]

Election Campaign Diary   

By Abhimaan Kashyap

Train to nuisance

Now whose idea was it to campaign on trains? As if we didn’t have enough of beggars and peppermint sellers. This is the holiday season, for heaven’s sake. It was Jaiprakash Narayan who started it and Praja Rajyam was quick to plagiarise it. Chiranjeevi’s whole brood has been trooping up and down trains since then. Who would want to be solicited by hordes of kanduva-wearing politicians? Ok, did Lok Satta guys at least buy their train tickets? Did PRP? Oh, yes, in the PRP, you don’t buy no ticket, you ain’t getting’ on that train.

Ace tractor driver

They are washing clothes, selling vegetables, sweeping streets, kissing babies and hugging ole women out there. It’s called novel campaigning. It gets them pictures in the newspapers, and costs little. But frankly, it’s not novel. Take tractor driving, for instance. The PRP’s Shobha Rani says she’ll drive an earth mover to do a one-up on Renuka Chowdhary, who is a compulsive tractor driver. But Renuka has been driving tractors for years. She did it in 1999, again in 2004 and again in 2009. No one drives a tractor better than Renuka.

Seen Telangana lately?

Has anyone seen the Telangana issue lately? In KCR’s speeches, it’s been smothered under his promises to send money by money order. For a man who said he needed no manifesto because he had a one-point agenda, he’s been giving more attention to Naidu’s colour TVs and his money, in a manner of speaking. Naidu, a born-again separatist, says little about it either, but he has reason to because he’s going to coastal Andhra next. The CPM is against Telangana anyway. So where’s the issue that brought the Mahakutami together gone? Jr NTR’s supine speech from his nodded its head in the direction of Telangana by demanding a place of honour for P V Narasimha Rao. Narasimha Rao is not likely to incite any passion in anyone, so that’s not really going to work. Junior signed off with a series of ‘Jais’: Jai NTR, Jai Telugu Nadu, Jai Andhra Pradesh. But where’s Jai Telangana?

Cell phone speeches

The most curious innovation seen in this election campaign is the cell phone speech. When Chiranjeevi’s helicopter ‘broke down’ and he could not reach Narsampet for his do there, show organizers mollified the crowd by using amplifying Chiranjeevi’s speech spoken into a cell phone. It wasn’t the real thing but it was something. Curiously, Chandrababu Naidu had to resort to a cell phone speech when he could not keep a date with Narsampet four days earlier.

For, anti or what?Sitaram Yechury

surfaced in Nalgonda on Saturday to canvass for comrade Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy in Nalgonda LS. To add to the confusion on Telangana, he spoke like a man who wants a separate state. The man responsible for blocking Telangana was YS, he thundered. If Telangana has to be created, the Mahakutami would have to come to power. But what does he care? Coming from a leader of a party which opposes Telangana, this in confusing. Does the CPM support or oppose Telangana? Typical of the Karat communists, there’s so much nuancing by the CPM that we don’t know where they stand.

Megamania loses fizz

Put any spin you want to it but the crowds aren’t coming. And it’s finally happened to the Meghashtar himself. As long as he was in his heartland of the Godavari districts, the superstar was buffeted by pressing crowds, but they started thinning as the novelty wore off. In Narsampeta, he had to let his cell phone do the talking because he couldn’t reach the venue. Telangana can be expected to be unimpressed by a film star, Mega or Mini. And so it turned out. Chiru had to cancel meetings in Khammam and Nizamabad because the numbers were’t there. His waited for hours for the crowd to build, but it didn’t. So he called it a day, leaving his minders to put out the familiar helicopter trouble story.

The future Prime Minister

Coming from a family of that boasts of three Prime Ministers in the family AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi must be used to flattering introductions at public meetings. Sarve Satyanarayana, Congress candidate for Malkajgiri LS, introduced him thus: “It gives me great pleasure to invite the future Prime Minister of the country Rahul Gandhi to the podium,” to a vociferous applause from the gathering. Satyanarayana was spoke in Telugu so we have no way of know whether Rahul was embarrassed.

Indiramma Kodalu

“She is Indira Gandhi's daughter-in-law," buzz the women as they see the sari-clad Sonia Gandhi climb down from her chopper. Driven by sheer curiosity, many voices pipe up in the crowd -- "Let me also have a look at her!" Ask 50-year-old Bhoodevi who is Sonia Gandhi.  Pat comes the reply “Indiramma Kodalu,” Talk about her Italian identity, Bhoodevi says Sonia Gandhi has been living in India for 30 years, she wears saris and speaks Hindi.  “Isn’t that a testimony of Sonia being an Indian,” asks Bhoodevi.

Remembering Sanjay Gandhi

For the womenfolk Sonia Gandhi is “Indiramma kodalu.” For Gaddam Narayana, Sanjeev Gandhi (Sanjay Gandhi) is his son.  The 70-year-old frail looking man fondly remembers Sanjay Gandhi who died in an air crash.  Narayana went to New Delhi to attend Sanjay Gandhi’s funeral and also went to Indira Gandhi’s residence. “Palvai Govardhan Reddy saab teeskapoyindu,” he says.  On every death anniversary, Narayana tonsures his head, burns incense and camphor in front of Sanjay Gandhi’s portrait.  He says on his first death anniversary, he cooked 50 kg of rice and fed the villagers.

The idiot box

TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu may have promised the extravagant colour TV freebie, but the electorate themselves are not swayed by it.  “Why should he give us a colour TV, don’t we have one,” says Anasuyamma as she rushes to the election meeting venue.  Anjaneya Goud, a toddy tapper in Ghatkesar, says he is happy with the Rs 2-a-kilo rice scheme, free power and Rs 200 pension.  “Colour TV naaku enduku ayya,” he says with a sheepish smile.  Rudramma, an agricultural labourer, too is not wooed by the freebie. She says, “You get a colour TV for Rs 5000-Rs 10000, don’t you,” and walks away hurriedly.