YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy seems to have become a role model for Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao, at least in his plans to launch his new English daily.
It may be mentioned that KCR is planning to launch new English daily Telangana Today very shortly.
As everybody knows launching a daily is a highly cost-intensive proposition and it requires huge funds. Though KCR, being a Chief Minister, has no dearth of funds, he does not spend money from his own pocket. So, he has decided to follow the Jagan model.
According to sources, KCR is said to have directed his party leaders to collect funds from his newly-enrolled party members in the name of advanced subscription for the new daily. There are about 40 lakh members for the party all over Telangana and the target is to collect subscription fee from at least 10 lakh people.
Even if each of the member pays Rs 1,000 towards subscription, it would fetch Rs 100 crore for KCR, which is more than enough to launch the daily. So, without taking out a penny from his pocket, KCR can get the daily launched!
In the past, Jagan also is learnt to have followed more or less similar model while launching Sakshi daily. Only difference is that he did not collect money from Congress workers.
Instead, he mobilized funds from industrial groups and rich individuals as equity for Jagati Publications and they were, in turn, granted benefits from the YSR government on quid pro quo basis. So, Jagan also did not spend much of his money to launch Sakshi!
