Jagan Mohan Reddy walked around 3,000 Kilometers before the 2019 elections and came to power with a record majority. Before Jagan, YSR and Chandrababu Naidu also undertook the Padayatra and came to power.
Now, Nara Lokesh is also doing the same and he is nearing the 200 Kilometers mark in his walkathon. Lokesh’s Padayatra is drawing huge crowds everywhere and the Padayatra is going on in the Chittoor district, the weakest district for TDP after 2019.
YSR Congress, its supporting blue media, and social media teams are worried but are busy circulating videos of minor tongue slips and misspelled words. They are hoping that these videos will ensure that there is no impact of the Padayatra.
This attitude of them reminds the similar attitude of TDP and its cadre before 2019. Back then, they would circulate pictures and videos of Jagan Mohan Reddy kissing and hugging in people and would mock it as eccentric and odd behavior.
They used to believe such videos and mocking would ensure zero impact of Jagan’s Padayatra. They are expecting the same from these videos of Lokesh. But Padayatra is a different concept altogether.
It is about establishing a connection with the people on-ground. Tongue slips and misspelled words are things of the past. People are noticing the improvement in Lokesh. It happened in the language as well as in his physical transformation.
The agenda is all about anti-incumbency right now. Tongue slips etc would hardly matter.
If YSR Congress pins its hopes on that, they would be disappointed in 2024 just like how it happened to TDP in 2019.
Remember how Kota says ‘Same Cards, Names Different’ in RGV’s Money.
