Nandyal bypoll assumes proportions of full-blown out war

HYDERABAD: Nandyal byelection has acquired all the characteristics of full-blown out war between Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. The candidates - B Brahmananda Reddy (TDP) and Silpa Mohan Reddy (YSRC) - do not matter anymore. It is either Naidu or Jagan Mohan Reddy.There is a flurry of activity everywhere in the sleepy traders’ town, not witnessed in the past. All hotels are bursting at seams with MLAs, ministers, and outsiders. Though a candidate cannot spend more than `28 lakh on his campaign, the amount has come to be considered as a pittance, not sufficient to meet even day’s expenditure for both the parties. 

The spurt in the number of Innovas and Scorpios moving in the town is indicating how much interest the two parties are taking in winning the election. About 8,000 workers from various parts of the district are in the town who are being hired everyday by both the parties for carrying out the campaign. They are being paid about `250 per head besides breakfast and lunch.   As the D-day - August 23 - is approaching fast, the leaders of the campaign of the two parties have begun shifting gears, taking it to a feverish pitch as well as putting into operation the ingenious ways of influencing the voters both fair and foul.

Jagan Mohan Reddy had been camping in Nandyal for the last 10 days, turbo-charging the YSRC campaign. Even as Jagan Mohan Reddy wound up his show, Naidu arrived in Nandyal on Saturday morning, hitting out at the YSRC chief. Jagan Mohan Reddy addressed a number of whistle-stop meetings in which he used all the abusive words available in Telugu to slam Naidu who appears to have asked his legions to give it back to Jagan Mohan Reddy in equal measure, while he himself exercising restraint on the choice of words.

As a result, the decibel levels of the campaign has reached zenith. It deteriorated into a hate campaign since the leaders know fully well that it is hatred and not love that has the ability to bind people together faster and stronger. Quite a number of ministers have been staying in Nandyal, implementing poll strategies which include fomenting hatred, offering freebies and goodies to the caste and religious groups, handing out veiled threats to voters that they would have to face the music if they do not support them. 

In this high-octane campaign, what is becoming a casualty is the poll-code as instances of its violation are more in number than those of its compliance. Using violence as a device to terrorise voters into voting for a party seems to be passe now, with money taking its place. Though the Election Commission guidelines are clear that no inducement should be made to the voters either in cash or in kind, nobody seems to be bothering about them.

There are allegations that both the parties have opened their money bags, which is a disconcerting symptom of a deeper malaise that has come to afflict the electoral politics. Hindupur MLA and film actor Balakrishna was caught on camera distributing money to the voters from a campaign vehicle for which there is no defence from the TDP till now. “As on date, both the parties are distributing anywhere between `1,000 and `2,000 per vote in the town. The byelection is going to be the most expensive one ever held in India,” says Andhra Pradesh Election Watch convenor V Lakshmana Reddy. He points out that according to the estimates they have arrived at, not less than `150 crore is likely to be distributed to voters or used in the campaign.

There are reports that so far about `50 lakh had been seized from activists meant for distribution which could be only the tip of an iceberg. The police seized `12 lakh from 51 people in Nandyal on Friday. Both the TDP and YSRC lodged complaints against each other with the Election Commission accusing the other of inducing the voters with money. Basing on the complaints, the EC has ordered searches in the houses of 16 TDP and YSRC leaders. It has already transferred DSP Gopalakrishna for acting in a partisan manner. 

On Friday, there were panic calls that money was arriving in heaps in the pantry van meant in which food is cooked for the Chief Minister during his stay in Nandyal. The officials stopped the vehicle, and after checking the interior found that there was no money in it. But the YSRC alleges that it was a cleverly managed decoy operation by the ruling TDP. Says YSRC leader Bhumana Karunakar Reddy: “It was very clever of the TDP. One Scorpio and one Toyota found their way into the town without anyone checking them as all the officials were checking for money in the pantry van.” 

Former Union minister Kotla  Surya Prakash Reddy says his party has asked the Election Commission to countermand the byelection as it has acquired the trappings of RK Nagar byelection. “Democracy has become a casualty in Nandyal where money is being spent like water,” says the former Union minister.