YSR plays the "rainmaker"

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YSR plays the "rainmaker"

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Chevella/Vikarabad: As chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy began his campaign opening speech at Chevella on this searing afternoon, a farmer watching the proceedings from a hillock adjacent to the venue pointed to the horizon and said, “It’s raining over there.”                                                                                                        

Out over the Ananthagiri hills in the west a promising head of thunder cloud  was building and the singeing breeze began to soften.

"When I started my padayatra from here six years ago,’’ Rajasekhara Reddy began, “all I saw were withered crops and farmers in distress.’’ He had clearly come prepared – wearing a Congress kanduva as a turban in the style of a farmer – to recall memories of the walkathon.

“Nine years of TDP’s neglect of rural areas and five years of drought had brought ruin to this land although it is so close to the capital. It was the padayatra that made me realize how bad things really were. That’s why we launched all our welfare schemes from here. Chevella is special to me.”

It was a familiar opener, contrived to win the favour of locals who take pride in the fact almost all of Rajasekhara Reddy’s signature welfare programmes were inaugurated here.

The clouds started to roll east. Could it rain now? Could the clouds actually conspire to hand this man a propaganda coup? Could they give his cronies evidence that the drought ended with the demise of Chandrababu Naidu and the rains came back with the Congress?

 “If today, we are spending Rs 38 500 crore to build the Pranahita-Chevella project, it is entirely to the Congress government’s credit. If today we are building 81 irrigation projects that no previous government had the guts to build, the credit is entirely that of the Congress government.

“If today, farmers get free power, it is because we promised it and delivered it and sustained it for five years.

“If today the support price for rice has increased from Rs 850 to Rs 900, if today the support price for cotton has increased from Rs 2000 to Rs 3000, if today Monsanto cotton seed prices have come down from Rs 1700 to Rs 750, the credit is entirely the Congress government’s.”

The welfare CM was laying it on thick.

“Today landless labourers do not have to migrate to feed themselves. They get work right here and the Employment Guarantee Scheme pays them dutifully every 15 days and deposits their money in their bank accounts. That credit is ours.

“We have kept every promise we made. We have shown that our promises are for real.”

The words now got warmer and the breeze cooler.

“When we promised free power, Chandrababu Naidu said power lines would be useful only to dry clothes. Today he is promising 12 hours of power. Can we believe him?

“There was once a man who wouldn’t feed his mother but promised gold to his aunt. Can we believe him?

“Can we believe a man who needs his brother in-law and nephew, Babai and Abbai, to stand guarantee for his promises? His all-free promises need the support of free shows by these two film stars. Can we believe him?

“Can we believe a man who backstabbed his own father-in-law and backstabbed the Rs 2 per kg rice scheme if he now says he will give us everything free?”

The bracing wind blew away the backdrop of the dais. The flags fluttered enthusiastically. The elemental propaganda coup now seemed imminent.

Then it began to rain, first a trickle and then a gentle shower. Was this man now going to actually claim credit for the rain?As the crowd and the dignitaries scurried away, it occurred to Sabitha Indra Reddy to grasp the opportunity: “The rain gods blessed our chief minister for five years. Now they are blessing him for five years more.”

Rajasekhara Reddy did not acknowledge the rain. As the rain fell at Chevella, or in his later speeches in Vikarabad, Parigi and Kodangal, he kept to his theme, that of the man who delivered. He threw his arms open and spoke like a man saying ‘judge me’, fully confident that he had the arsenal of welfare work to win the verdict.

At the end of his first day on the stump, Rajasekhara Reddy, having already offered himself as the referendum, has made himself the centre of this election. He is now the agenda as well as the setter of it. On day one of the campaign, Rajasekhara Reddy has set himself up as the rainmaker of the summer to come.