Ruling out early elections and minor Cabinet reshuffle, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday tried to boost the morale of party leaders and rejuvenate the grassroots level cadre after the party suffered a shock defeat in some constituencies in the MLC elections.

Nevertheless, the YSRCP supremo iterated his “target 175” aimed at winning all the 175 seats this time, saying he was not willing to lose even a single legislator. With this he sent out a strong and positive message that the party will back them.

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The chief minister adopted a softer tone in his first meeting with party MPs, MLAs, MLCs, regional coordinators and constituency in charges at his camp office cum residence in Tadepalli after YSRCP suffered a humiliating loss in all the three graduate constituencies and four of its MLAs cross voted leading to the victory of the TDP candidate in the MLC election under MLA quota.

In the past, the chief minister had been quite harsh on the MLAs who performed poorly and even during Cabinet meetings. He had been critical of their performances. But this time around, he seemed to be keen to put all speculations at rest and keep his flock together by reassuring them.

However, today Reddy discussed the MLC elections and pointed out that the YSRCP got quite a large share of the votes of the graduates and all the other parties had to come together to defeat the YSRCP in graduate constituencies. He ridiculed the TDP for its slender win in four seats yet projecting their gains as a sign of resurgence of the party.

“We are waging a battle against Marichas (the demon who changed his form in Ramayana),” said Reddy to his party leaders warning them of the canards spread by the vernacular media controlled by N Chandrababu Naidu and the mind games played by the Opposition leader.

He reminded them to maintain rapport with the public saying, “Politics is nothing but human relations.”

The party is going to begin a new outreach programme “Jagan is your future” from 7 April for the next two weeks in order to reach out to every household and eventually all the five crore population in the state about the various social welfare benefits launched by his government and carry the chief minister’s message to them.