Telugu Desam's deep pockets hurting rivals

The media blitzkrieg unleashed by the ruling Telugu Desam Party over the last one week on Telugu TV channels has best showcased its money power and propaganda skills with the opposition Congress party being nowhere near to match it. All the Telugu news channels, like ETV, TV9, Maa TV, Teja have been flooded with Telugu Desam election advertisements round the clock.

Having woken up to the 'all out efforts' put in by the TDP leadership to ensure their bid to retain power, the opposition alliance led by the Congress has now began complaining about it, though it maintains that the people are in a mood to throw out the ruling party in the ensuing elections.

Critical of the ruling party's money power in the election campaign, B V Raghavulu, secretary, CPI(M) claimed that TDP was spending on an average about Rs 3 crore in each Assembly segment. According to Raghavulu, the ruling party's expenditure for each Lok Sabha constituency could be anywhere between Rs 10-15 crore.

" TDP's advertisement spree only shows the extent of its desperation. It has also dumped crores of rupees worth of propaganda material all over the state. In the 1999 elections, they experimented with money in only a limited number of segments. This time they have extended the money mantra to all the constituencies," he said.

Speaking to Business Standard, Raghavulu also accused the TDP of using its money power to bribe the weak elements in opposition parties and promoting independent candidates in the fray to damage the prospects of opposition parties. "These tendencies clearly show that the TDP has lost the confidence of the people. It has even fielded candidates with criminal backgrounds to win the election," he said.

P Upendra, former union minister and senior Congress party leader, was at a loss of words to explain the gap between TDP and Congress party in terms of media propaganda. "The Congress has not been able to support the candidates with such campaign and has not been able to supply any propaganda material to them because of lack of money. I admit that we are no match to the ruling party in this aspect, though the media campaign will have no effect whatsoever on the minds of voters who have already decided to vote the Congress party to power," he said.

"TDP leaders themselves admit that the TDP high command has given Rs 50 lakh to each Assembly segment with at least another Rs 50 lakh worth of expenditure to be borne by the candidate himself. That is the kind of money they are going to spend,"Upendra observed. According to him, a majority of the SC, ST reserved constituencies in Andhra Pradesh had been wrested by TDP in previous elections only because Congress could not support its candidates with any money to invest in the election campaign.

But where does that money come from? "Of course from big business and big industry people. Several of them took favours from the state government. Naidu did a lot of things for them, including doling out government lands at nominal cost beside others. Now they would pay him for that," Upendra alleged.

But was the Congress party completely ignored by these big business people? "Some may give a fraction of what they give to the ruling party. They do it secretively as they fear that they would face the wrath of the ruling party if it is known," replies Upendra.

According to Upendra, Congress candidates in the state are mainly dependent on their friends and relations for the election expenditure. But, TDP spokesman and Rajya Sabha member C Ramchandraiah argues the other way round. He pointed out that Congress party has fielded candidates with money power. "Look at Rajagopal, the Congress candidate from Vijayawada parliamentary constituency. It is said that he is spending around Rs 65 lakh per day on election campaigning. It is the same with Vizag Parliamentary constituency where former chief minister N Janardhan Reddy is contesting," he said, adding that money power beyond a certain point will actually have a diminishing effect. "If the opposition is levelling accusation with regards to our spending, it is because they are searching for a pretext for their future failure,"he commented.

Accusations and counter-accusations notwithstanding, polls in AP have come a long way in terms of expenditure after the 1994 elections. According to a senior political observer, candidates from major political parties had spent a maximum of Rs 15 lakh per Assembly constituency in the 1994 elections.

"That changed with the 1999 elections where the amount had gone up to Rs 50 lakh and beyond. Elections have been completely commercialised. What we are seeing now is the extension of 1999 trend," he said.