In Rajahmundry LS seat, BJP Andhra chief runs into Jagan’s ‘Navaratnalu’

“Vadiki vote veyyamu, evarni veyaniyamu. 2019 lo vote vesi tappu chesamu (We will not vote for him, nor let anyone else vote for him. We made a mistake in 2019 by voting for him),” a middle-aged man declares about Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy to his friends at a tea stall on Main Road in Rajahmundry town of Andhra Pradesh, which has a pro-YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) Telugu daily on display. His four friends meekly agree, as their discussion veers towards other aspects of daily life.

The sentiment is echoed in other urban and semi-urban regions across the Rajahmundry Lok Sabha seat, which is headed for a high-pitched battle between state BJP chief Daggubati Purandeswari, the YSRCP’s “local” Gudur Srinivas, and former Andhra Pradesh Congress chief Gidugu Rudra Raju. The seat is one of the six that the BJP is contesting as part of its alliance with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and JanaSena Party (JSP).

The Lok Sabha seat, spread across East and West Godavari districts, has seven Assembly segments under it — Rajahmundry Urban, Rajahmundry Rural, Kovvur, Rajanagaram, Gopalapuram, Nidadavole and Anaparthy — and is currently represented by the YSRCP’s Margani Bharat, who has been fielded by the party from the Rajahmundry Urban segment in the simultaneous Assembly polls.

In the rural parts of the Lok Sabha constituency, the anti-YSRCP sentiment seems far weaker as people swear by the Jagan government’s nine welfare schemes, dubbed Navaratnalu (Nine Gems). Most of the YSRCP welfare schemes have women as beneficiaries.

The BJP’s election plank is development and “ridding the state of debts brought on by Jagan”. The party had drawn a blank in 2019, after having won two seats in 2014 in alliance with the TDP.

“We know development has