Rattled by KCR’s recent defeat in neighbouring Telangana, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSRCP supremo YS Jagan Mohan Reddy have been ruthlessly dropping sitting MLAs and MPs in a bid to tackle anti incumbency.

While it seems to be a good call, given that the BJP had pulled up something similar in states like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh and retained power; in the case of YSRCP, it has left the party vulnerable to dissent. But the YSRCP chief is banking on another tool of Narendra Modi’s BJP – social engineering to ride back to power, a second time.

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Till date, the YSRCP has come up with three lists of candidates and dropped 23 MLAs. In some cases, MLAs have been shifted to other constituencies or sitting MPs were given nominations for MLA seats.

The party’s first list of candidates or constituency-in-charges was released on 11 December, last year, just eight days after results for Telangana election were declared. In the first list, three MLAs were denied renomination. On 4 January, the second list was released and Reddy chose to chop 10 more MLAs and in the third list released on 13 January, he dropped another ten taking the total number to 23. He may replace as many as 40 MLAs among the 151 that had won on YSRCP tickets in 2019.

Reddy seemed to have learnt the lesson from witnessing KCR’s fate. The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo had balked from changing too many sitting MLAs despite adverse survey reports. He was apprehensive that if he dropped, the MLAs would join either Congress or the BJP.

As veteran journalist Devulapalli Amar pointed out “KCR had changed 10 candidates and nine of them won and if he had changed another 20, he would have been back in power for the third time.” KCR’s gamble did not pay off but it served as a wake-up call for the YSRCP supremo. Although to be fair to Reddy, he had warned his underperforming MLAs almost a year back that they would not be renominated. His warning had also cost him an MLC seat as four of the MLAs cross voted for a TDP candidate.

Amar, who is the media advisor to the Andhra Pradesh Government, added that the sitting MLAs are being dropped not only because they had underperformed, but there are other parameters.

“There are 2-3 parameters. One of them is of course performance, the second is caste and the third is people’s pulse,” said Amar claiming that most of the replacements belonged to SC/ST and BCs. The YSRCP seems to have borrowed a leaf from BJP’s book of social engineering which helped the national party to win Uttar Pradesh twice and also will come handy in General Elections 2024.