A SLEEPER HIT

Naidu’s stunning victory raises questions about the vote-catching power of welfare schemes

- RAHUL DEVULAPALLI

Edlapally Bharathi, 43, was on the hills of Tirumala, seeking peace not God, as election results trickled in. Hailing from Dhiguva Buruju village in Chittoor, she left school after the fifth grade and later became a social activist and author of several books. Her first book, Edari Bathukulu (Dry Lives) written in 2018, is about the sad state of Madiga dalit women like her. The YSR Congress Party had counted marginalised rural women like them as its vote bank in Andhra Pradesh. They were the biggest beneficiaries of the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government’s direct cash transfer schemes; more than 02 lakh crore was disbursed in five years.

“They may temporarily feel happy with cash schemes and buy gold or other items. But how will it change anyone’s life in the long term?”said Bharathi, expressing her yearning for systemic change. Perhaps many women voters, who outnumber male voters, felt likewise and dealt a massive blow to the ruling party. It got just 11 of 175 seats in the legislative assembly and 4 in the Lok Sabha, while the alliance of the Telugu Desam Party, the BJP and the JanaSena Party won 164 seats in the assembly and 21 of 25 Lok Sabha seats, surpassing their own expectations.