Andhra Pradesh

The Andhra election campaign : All work and no play

You would recall pictures of candidates of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) wooing voters during the campaign for the assembly elections last December, by lending a helping hand, albeit for the cameras.

Former Speaker Madhusudhana Chary giving a voter a shave. He however, lost the election

Candidates gave voters a haircut, a shave, prepared pakoras and in some cases, even gave people and their toddlers a bath. 

Pocharam Srinivas Reddy went on to win the election and become the new Speaker of the Assembly


Imitation is the best form of flattery and across the border, the ruling Telugu Desam (TDP) has taken a leaf out of the TRS book. And Nara Lokesh, TDP general secretary and son of chief minister Chandrababu Naidu is leading from the front.

Lokesh is contesting his first direct election and is the candidate from the Mangalgiri assembly constituency. 


Having hit the opposition out of the park in the assembly elections, winning 88 seats on their own, the TRS does not see the need to indulge in such gimmicks this time round. The party is tantalisingly close to the century mark in the Telangana assembly, with two independents, eight Congress MLAs and one TDP MLA set to cross over to the ruling camp. 


In the run-up to the elections, KT Rama Rao, now the working president of the TRS had said the party will hit a Virat Kohli-like century. If this photograph is anything to go by, KTR wants to demonstrate how exactly it is done on the cricket pitch as well. 

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