THE PROFLIGATE GENERAL

ANDHRA CM JAGAN REDDY’S POPULIST WELFARE MEASURES HAVE GOT THE PEOPLE’S VOTE, BUT IT HAS ALSO LEFT THE STATE ON THE VERGE OF BANKRUPTCY

- AMARNATH K. MENON

ANDHRA PRADESH CHIEF minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had added one more pledge to his prepoll promises when he took charge in May 2019—that he would replace his cabinet colleagues midway through the five-year term and dispatch them for party work. So, with the Nov ember 30 deadline lapsing, there is anxiety in his Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress (YSRC) about the impending reshuffle. Sources say a few of the five deputy chief ministers and 20 other ministers may be retained so that the changeover does not deliver any rude shocks to the governance engine. The reshuffle, expected in mid-January, is still in the works, and is poised to be a defining moment for Jagan. Even more so considering that the YSRC as a political party does not have an internal governance mechanism.

However, dissent seems unlikely in a party that has 151 MLAs in the 175-seat legislative assembly. The YSRC has also been on a winning spree since the assembly win, securing overwhelming majorities in elections at every level. The party won 22 out of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 parliamentary election and all 12 municipal corporations and 74 of the 75 municipalities and Nagar panchayats in March 2021. In September, the party captured all 13 zilla parishads (ZPs), the first time a ruling party has done so in the state, and over 90 per cent of the MPTCs or the mandal parishad territorial constituencies.