One of the many reasons for the YSR Congress party in the last assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh is the concept of regional coordinators introduced by party president and former chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, according to a political analyst who has been observing the party functioning for the last five years.
Though the party has an organisational structure right from the village level to the state level, the biggest hurdle between the party workers at the grassroots level and the party president is regional coordinators for different regions of the state.
According to the analyst, these regional coordinators have created a virtual fiefdom for themselves in their respective regions, as they have become the direct connecting link with the high command. The lower-level party leaders never got the opportunity to meet Jagan.
“In other parties, district party presidents directly report to the state president during the regular party meetings. But Jagan doesn’t have the habit of interacting with district or mandal party presidents. He had been inaccessible for these leaders in the last five years,” he pointed out.
As a result, if there is any problem at the grassroot level – like the growing discontent against the local MLA or a local leader, it would be handled by the regional coordinators. Since the MLA or the leader manages the regional coordinator, the problem would never get solved.
When Jagan held the meeting of the regional coordinators, they would tell him all was well with the party at the ground level. Even the state coordinator – Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, would not present a factual picture of the party situation to the president.
“After the party’s humiliating defeat in the last elections, Jagan realised that there is something wrong with the system. He gave the impression that he would do away with the regional coordinators system, but after a couple of months, he was back to the same old system and is still continuing to depend on them,” the analyst pointed out.
