Andhra Pradesh Assembly polls on Monday will not only decide CM’s fate Jagan Mohan Reddy Also included is the governance model he has established over the past five years.
Shortly after taking office in 2019, Reddy launched a volunteer system similar to a bank’s “customer relationship manager”. To establish a single point of contact for the delivery of essential services, one volunteer is designated for every 40-45 households and one secretariat or office for every 1,000 households.
The system, promoted as “government at the doorstep”, has been expanded to provide medical services such as certification (income, marriage, birth and death), free testing for lifestyle and chronic diseases, and cash transfers through direct benefit transfers.
While other governments, such as the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, have provided similar services, the YSRCP’s Andhra model differs in that political strategy firm I-PAC is responsible for strategy, feedback and publicity. Reddy started the polls in partnership with I-PAC in 2019, when he swept 151 of the 175 assembly seats and secured 50% of the votes.
In the last quarter of 2022, I-PAC (now led by co-founder Rishi Raj Singh) started creating a narrative around government welfare schemes implemented through DBT and the volunteer system. An IIT alumnus and former investment banker, Singh has worked in several poll campaigns, including Narendra Modi’s in 2014, Amarinder Singh in Punjab in 2017 Singh ) and Arvind Kejriwal’s 2020 Delhi poll campaign.
“This is the first time in two years that we have engaged in grassroots governance. We have worked closely with the chief minister on the contours of the strategy,” Singh said.
These schemes are targeted at various segments – ‘Amma Vodi’ for mothers sending their children to school, ‘Rythu Bharosa’ for farmers, pension for the elderly and disabled, ‘Vidya Deevena’ for students, etc.
I-PAC claimed that in the first 35 days of the scheme, more than 9.3 million certificates related to birth, death and marriage were issued and more than 6.2 million people received free treatment at about 12,000 camps across the state. “Amma Vodi” has benefited 4.4 million people, while “Vidya Deevena” has benefited more than 2.9 million people.
Sunkara Naga Brahmam, a physically challenged pensioner, said: “Volunteers delivered cash pensions to our doorsteps. When I contracted coronavirus in 2021, volunteers went home to give We hand out pensions and medicines and our relatives ignore us.
The welfare scheme has also caused controversy, with the opposition claiming citizens’ data is being shared with a private company and political representatives are threatened by “outsiders”.
Pensioner Lakkoju Siva Parvati said: “While the volunteers are very helpful, there is a downside as they insist that we support the ruling party. They threaten that if we Failure to do so will result in us being declared ineligible for the welfare scheme. “We will be threatened with cancellation of the welfare scheme if we do not comply with their instructions. “
However, I-PAC event managers denied any disruption or intimidation and claimed that volunteers acted as last-mile delivery partners.
As Reddy’s ‘Memantha Siddham Yatra’ (we are all ready) comes to an end, he hopes that his promises or ‘navratnalus’ will be fulfilled. This campaign mirrors his 2019 Prajasankalp Padyatra, when he walked over 3,000 kilometers from Idupulapaya (Kadapa) to Ichchapuram (Sreekakulam) in over a year.
The slogan of the movement is “Jagan Kasom Siddham” (People cry for Jagan). Through dialogues from the film and the catchy campaign song “Maa Namakkam Nuvve Jagan” (Jagan is our religion), our effort is to keep people’s attention.
In March, opposition leader and former chief minister of the Liberal Democratic Party, Chandrababu Naidu, went to the European Commission to complain that the continuation of the volunteer system violated the code of conduct and stopped door-to-door pension payments. He also made sharp criticisms of the system, but later backtracked, saying that not only would welfare reform and volunteer programs continue, but remuneration for volunteers would be doubled.
Only June will tell us whether Jagan will continue as chief minister. But his model of governance — or at least some parts of it — is likely to remain.
Shortly after taking office in 2019, Reddy launched a volunteer system similar to a bank’s “customer relationship manager”. To establish a single point of contact for the delivery of essential services, one volunteer is designated for every 40-45 households and one secretariat or office for every 1,000 households.
The system, promoted as “government at the doorstep”, has been expanded to provide medical services such as certification (income, marriage, birth and death), free testing for lifestyle and chronic diseases, and cash transfers through direct benefit transfers.
While other governments, such as the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, have provided similar services, the YSRCP’s Andhra model differs in that political strategy firm I-PAC is responsible for strategy, feedback and publicity. Reddy started the polls in partnership with I-PAC in 2019, when he swept 151 of the 175 assembly seats and secured 50% of the votes.
In the last quarter of 2022, I-PAC (now led by co-founder Rishi Raj Singh) started creating a narrative around government welfare schemes implemented through DBT and the volunteer system. An IIT alumnus and former investment banker, Singh has worked in several poll campaigns, including Narendra Modi’s in 2014, Amarinder Singh in Punjab in 2017 Singh ) and Arvind Kejriwal’s 2020 Delhi poll campaign.
“This is the first time in two years that we have engaged in grassroots governance. We have worked closely with the chief minister on the contours of the strategy,” Singh said.
These schemes are targeted at various segments – ‘Amma Vodi’ for mothers sending their children to school, ‘Rythu Bharosa’ for farmers, pension for the elderly and disabled, ‘Vidya Deevena’ for students, etc.
I-PAC claimed that in the first 35 days of the scheme, more than 9.3 million certificates related to birth, death and marriage were issued and more than 6.2 million people received free treatment at about 12,000 camps across the state. “Amma Vodi” has benefited 4.4 million people, while “Vidya Deevena” has benefited more than 2.9 million people.
Sunkara Naga Brahmam, a physically challenged pensioner, said: “Volunteers delivered cash pensions to our doorsteps. When I contracted coronavirus in 2021, volunteers went home to give We hand out pensions and medicines and our relatives ignore us.
The welfare scheme has also caused controversy, with the opposition claiming citizens’ data is being shared with a private company and political representatives are threatened by “outsiders”.
Pensioner Lakkoju Siva Parvati said: “While the volunteers are very helpful, there is a downside as they insist that we support the ruling party. They threaten that if we Failure to do so will result in us being declared ineligible for the welfare scheme. “We will be threatened with cancellation of the welfare scheme if we do not comply with their instructions. “
However, I-PAC event managers denied any disruption or intimidation and claimed that volunteers acted as last-mile delivery partners.
As Reddy’s ‘Memantha Siddham Yatra’ (we are all ready) comes to an end, he hopes that his promises or ‘navratnalus’ will be fulfilled. This campaign mirrors his 2019 Prajasankalp Padyatra, when he walked over 3,000 kilometers from Idupulapaya (Kadapa) to Ichchapuram (Sreekakulam) in over a year.
The slogan of the movement is “Jagan Kasom Siddham” (People cry for Jagan). Through dialogues from the film and the catchy campaign song “Maa Namakkam Nuvve Jagan” (Jagan is our religion), our effort is to keep people’s attention.
In March, opposition leader and former chief minister of the Liberal Democratic Party, Chandrababu Naidu, went to the European Commission to complain that the continuation of the volunteer system violated the code of conduct and stopped door-to-door pension payments. He also made sharp criticisms of the system, but later backtracked, saying that not only would welfare reform and volunteer programs continue, but remuneration for volunteers would be doubled.
Only June will tell us whether Jagan will continue as chief minister. But his model of governance — or at least some parts of it — is likely to remain.
