A major mistake to bar volunteers at the TDP’s request?

According to reports, TDP’s “self-goal” regarding volunteers has boosted the YSRC’s graph in recent weeks. The yellow party, according to governing party leaders, made a “political blunder” by forbidding volunteers from distributing pensions to recipients at their doorstep.

Leaders of the YSRC also assert that the damage control efforts being undertaken by the TDP leadership are pointless. A top leader said, “Not just in rural areas, but neutral voters in urban areas have started to shift towards the YSRC.”

In an interview with TNIE, Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, general secretary of the YSRC, said that after four and a half years, pensioners—especially the elderly—recall the days of TDP administration, when they had to wait in line for hours at government offices under the sweltering heat.

Sajjala said, “How can volunteers, who have been delivering pensions at the doorstep of beneficiaries for more than four and a half years, influence people in the last one month?” and said it was ridiculous for the TDP to make accusations against volunteers.

Denouncing as untrue the accusations made by the TDP and its supporters that volunteers were engaging in anti-social activities, the YSRC leader posed the question, “Will people allow them to do so for so many years if they are collecting sensitive data or entering households in the absence of the men?”

He went on to say that the YSRC does not always require volunteers to spread the word about its charity programs. “We have a well-functioning organizational structure, complete with local booth committees. In addition to them, there is Gruha Saradhulu, who has ties to the secretariats of the ward and village. Additionally, the secretariat level has three in-charges. At least four of our party workers have contact with the homes if you take any fifty, he said.

“Even if the alliance continues to use the services of volunteers, they will make them like the previous Janmabhoomi Committees and provide the ~10,000 honorarium to them,” Sajjala added, asserting that the TDP’s pledge to enhance the honorarium for volunteers will not benefit the party. People find these committees annoying, and Naidu’s claims won’t hold water with them.