Vijayawada, May 31, 2023: Chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had a brief meeting with IPAC founder Prashant Kishore during the former’s recent visit to the national capital.
The meeting took place after the chief minister’s participation in the general council of the NITI Aayog, according to sources.
The meeting was initially planned in Tadepalli before the chief minister left for the national capital. However, it was deferred and planned in Delhi, sources told TOI.
The IPAC has been working with CM Jagan in AP even after the 2019 elections. Though Prashant claims to have quit the IPAC, sources say that he is guiding his teams. The IPAC team in AP had travelled extensively covering all the 175 assembly constituencies taking the pulse of the people. They have also made their own assessment of every MLA and suggested alternative names in case a sitting MLA is to be dropped in the next election.
Sources say that Jaganhad shared these reports with Prashant during his meeting, further indicating that the election strategist advised the CM to go to people with his Navaratnalu and no need to add new promises for the 2024 election. It was also suggested that the Jagan would only appeal to the people to assess his work and give their vote in the next election according to the reports published in timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
The meeting also decided to drop at least 25 sitting MLAs in the next elections and bring new faces. The CM has reportedly took the review of Kishore on the 175 candidates to fight the 2024 election.
A decision was taken a month ago to replace the candidates in some constituencies and the change of candidature for Tekkali assembly constituency was done at the behest of Kishore and his IPAC team. Though Jagan had announced the candidature of MLC Duvvada Srinivas for Tekkali in April this year, he was dropped last week and his wife, Vani, who is also Tekkali ZPTC member, was made the candidate for the assembly seat.
