YSR Congress party president and Leader of Opposition in Andhra Pradesh assembly Y S Jaganmohan Reddy will cross yet another milestone in his historic Praja Sankalpa Yatra, a marathon padayatra, on Tuesday.
He will be completing one year of his journey, which is definitely a record in Indian political history, a fact even his political adversaries have to accept.
Though he had taken occasional breaks, apart from his weekly presence at the Hyderabad CBI court, it is no small task to be amidst the people for such a long time.
In all, he had been walking for 294 days out of the total 365 days in the last one year, covered 1739 villages of 205 mandals. 47 municipalities, eight corporations and 122 constituencies in as many as 11 districts.
He was touring the 12th district – Vizianagaram, when he faced an attack on his life at Visakhapatnam airport on October 25 and was forced to take a break.
Jagan walked, in all, 3,211.50 km during his marathon journey, meeting people from all walks of life, addressed 113 public meetings and conventions, besides 42 Atmeeya Sammelans.
Setting aside his objective of coming to power in Andhra Pradesh dethroning the Telugu Desam Party headed by chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, it would have given a tremendous experience to Jagan in understanding the issues confronting the people.
Those who interviewed him and those who observed his political journey in the last 10 years can vouch for the fact that Jagan is now a changed man, compared to what he was a year ago, thanks to his padayatra.
It also has brought him a lot of maturity in thinking and actions. He is not blindly believing people, but is able to judge who is who and what is what.
He is able to speak with the people in a calculated manner and has developed a vision on what he would be able to do, if he is voted to power. In that context, the padayatra has given him a life time experience.
If everything goes well, Jagan would be able to complete his padayatra by December 25, coinciding with Christmas. And he will be ready for the big battle from the New Year!
