Jaganmohan Reddy completes foot march

YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy Wednesday completed his over an year-long 'paadayatra' criss crossing Andhra Pradesh, becoming the first politician to undertake a foot march of over 3,000 km in recent years.

Jagan, as the YSRC chief is popularly called, unveiled a 91-feet pylon resembling the Eiffel Tower in Paris, with a dome at the top resembling the Parliament House, as he wound up the "Praja Sankalpa Paadayatra" at Itchapuram town in Srikakulam district, bordering Odisha.

The Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Jagan had launched the walkathon on November 6, 2017 from his native village Idupulapaya in Kadapa district with the objective of dislodging the Chandrababu Naidu government.

He had walked for a distance of 3,648 km in 341 days covering 134 out 175 Assembly segments in 13 districts, the party said.

Apart from his weekly Friday break for court appearance in the disproportionate assets case trial, he had to put off his foot march for about a month following an "attempt to murder" on him at the Visakhapatnam airport lounge on October 25 when a man attacked him with a knife.

The main purposed of the yatra was to meet citizens at their doorstep and understand their problems and grievances and set the YSRC agenda for a better Andhra Pradesh, the party had announced at the beginning of the effort.

Over the course of the paadayatra, he met over two crore people and engaged with various stakeholders like general public, media, party workers, influencers, NRIs, students, youth, women, senior citizens and farmers, the YSRC announced at the culmination of the yatra.

Jagan shared his vision for the development of Andhra and the YSRCs nine main promises Navratnalu intended for the benefit of all sections of the society, it added.

His father late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had undertaken a 1475-km foot march in 2003 to capture power in 2004 in the then united Andhra Pradesh.

Telugu Desam president Naidu also adopted the same approach in 2012-13, covering over 2700-km and went on to return to power in 2014 (post-bifurcation).

Interestingly, Jagans sister Sharmila had also did a walkathon in 2012 for over 3100-km after he was arrested in the disproportionate assets case.

With elections to the state assembly round the corner, it will be interesting to see if the footmarch brings electoral dividends to Jagan also.