With the Election Commission directing the AP state government to keep away volunteers from election duties and also from distribution of welfare programmes like pensions, the issue of volunteers gaining political momentum ahead of elections.
Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy and other ruling party leaders, who tried to provoke volunteers that it was due to TDP complaints their services are at stake, seems to be now in defence.
As TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu repeatedly assures that he is not against the volunteers system and if he comes to power he will continue their jobs, YS Jagan trying is best to motivate volunteers so that they can revolt against TDP in villages.
First, YCP leaders persuaded volunteers to submit a “mass resignation’ protesting against EC direction to keep away from pension distribution. Later, they also conducted protest marches with pension beneficiaries towards Village Secretariats for stopping volunteers from handing them pension amounts. But these two attempts backfired and the ruling party is locked in a helpless situation.
Only a handful of volunteers resigned responding to local YCP leaders’ provocation and by and large they continued in services following EC directions. As few aged pensioners died by participating in protest marches amid heated sun, this led to severe criticism against the ruling party for adopting `politics of corpse’.
Even the Election Commission has also become angry as the ruling party politicizing volunteers issue and complaints have been made against chief secretary Jawahar Reddy for intentionally delaying pension distribution following EC’s directives.
On the otherhand, several YCP leaders are openly confessing that volunteers are like their party activists and are the main instrument for them in electioneering. YCP MLC Bharat recently confessed that volunteers are now YCP leaders.
