Poll fever grips state's political parties

The elections in Andhra Pradesh are at least a year away, but political parties here have already started gearing up for the battle and some of them even initiating the process of selecting candidates.

TDP Chief N Chandrababu Naidu completed a record 208-day 'padayatra' across the state over the last seven months, the grand finale of which was held in Visakhapatnam yesterday.
 The former Chief Minister, who has been in opposition for nine years, made a slew of promises in his meetings including writing off agricultural loans, remunerative prices for farmers, monthly dole for unemployed educated youth and setting up special courts for trying cases against women, if he is voted to power.
 Naidu reportedly held constituency-wise reviews during his foot march and began short listing of candidates for the polls.
 Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, who faced a tough time ever since he became Chief Minister on account of Telangana and Jagan factors, has been travelling across the state, almost on a daily basis, to highlight the welfare schemes of his government.
 TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao has already announced that he would declare the first list of candidates for the elections next month.
 At a meeting yesterday, he said he was targeting to win about 100 assembly and 16 Lok Sabha seats which would enable the party to dictate terms to the Centre and achieve a separate state for Telangana.
 The TRS president, who has been encouraging migration of leaders from other parties, is also likely to undertake a 'yatra' soon.
 Maintaining that Congress, TDP and other parties were dominated by leaders from non-Telangana regions, he appealed to the electorate to reject them.
 He too promised uninterrupted power supply for farmers, free education for students, loan waiver for farmers, two bed room houses for poor among others.
 Meanwhile, the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) honorary president Y S Vijayamma has launched the 'Rachabanda' programme while YSRCP leader Sharmila, sister of Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, is already on a state-wide padayatra.
 Not to be left behind, senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu has been participating in breakfast meetings with people from different sections of society.
 Noting that his meetings have received tremendous response from the public, he recently expressed confidence that BJP would achieve surprising results in AP in the 2014 Lok Sabha and assembly elections.
 The CPI and CPI(M) have been undertaking agitations on people's issues like ongoing power crisis in the state to reach out to the people.
-PTI