Political Situation in Andhra Pradesh

Disclaimer: All the contents in this post are the opinions and comments of few people, who are actively involved in Politics. I cannot guarantee that these are correct.

I heard of distributing money during elections long time back. I got authenticated information during 1999 municipality elections. At that time, all the contestants from main parties distributed around Rs.100 to almost everyone. In 2005 municipality elections also, all the contestants from main parties distributed around Rs.150 to everyone. In Assembly elections, they don't distribute money to everyone. But, they distribute in selected areas or to selected families.

I was talking to a person who was from a selected area. He is looking forward for the assembly elections. He was telling me that, he would get around Rs.9000 at the time of next elections. There are three main parties in AP. Each party gives around Rs.1000 to each voter. There are three voters in his family. So, he would get 3*3*1000 = Rs.9000 at the time of elections. Of course, they don't distribute that much money to everyone. It varies a lot from area to area, and family to family. But, it shows the picture of politics in AP.

After that only, I understood why Dr.Jayaprakash Narayana (JP) has been stressing so much on not distributing Liquor and money during the elections.

Few months back, two people said, if Dr.JP invites them, then they would join Loksatta. Dr.JP invites everyone in his website, and in all the meetings. But, he does not invite anyone personally. So, these two people did not join Loksatta. After some time, the first person joined a new party as official representative. (On a side note, The other official representative of the same party also was in Loksatta some time back.) The second person was a famous actress of yesteryears. She was in TDP around a decade back, and then she came out. She waited for the invitation of Dr.JP, and she did not get the invitation. She joined Congress party few days back.

Few months back, the present government took back few acres of land that was allotted to a famous old hero. There were Income tax raids on his son's house. After some time, government gave the land back to that hero. After few days, he joined Congress. One famous director cum music director got around 7 acres of land at Gopanapalli in Hyderabad. Now he is in Congress. Similarly, another famous comedian also got land, and he joined Congress.

For any alliance, Dr.JP has put only one condition. That condition is, they should not distribute money and liquor during the elections. He has not put any other condition for alliance. Still, there was no party, which is ready to make alliance with them. Even the parties which are fighting against corruption, and the parties in which the top leaders have soft corner for loksatta, are not making alliance with loksatta. One reason is, if Loksatta gets power even in one constituency, they will show clear difference, and they can change the entire political situation in AP. If anybody gives their support for them, and in process if Loksatta gets even little power, very soon they can change the entire political situation, and JP becomes a great leader, and all others become small leaders in comparison to him. Nobody likes that. So, nobody is interested in making alliance with Loksatta. For those, who do not believe this, read the life history of N.T.Rama Rao and Nara Chandrababu Naidu.