YS Jagan Mohan Reddy cancels Tirupati bypoll tour

Amaravati: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has cancelled his election meeting in Tirupati on April 14. This decision has come as a shock for the rank and file of YSRCP as they were midway making arrangements for the public meeting. The party wanted Jagan to address the public meeting as all bigwigs of TDP and BJP were campaigning in the Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency.

The Chief Minister in a letter to the voters said, "Health and happiness is of utmost importance for me. Therefore, being a responsible Chief Minister, I have decided to cancel my trip to the poll-bound constituency."

"As you all must be aware, I was hoping to reach out to each of you personally on April 14 by means of a public meeting that was scheduled. However, I'm having to write this letter after having a look at the latest health bulletin. The health of every single citizen matters to me," he said.

Reddy said thousands of citizens could have turned up for the public meeting to show their love and affection for him, yet he chose to cancel the meeting because of the rising corona virus cases. Referring to the latest corona virus bulletin, the Chief Minister said infections are rising across the country and Andhra Pradesh reported 2,765 cases in the latest 24 hour period with a positivity rate of 8.67 per cent.

"Chittoor district has reported the maximum number of cases with 496 infections. Nellore district has also reported 292 cases in just 24 hours. Out of the 11 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, four belong to the districts of Chittoor and Nellore," Reddy added.

However, he appealed to the voters to vote for Gurumoorthy, a physiotherapist who walked with Reddy all through his 3,600-km long 'praja sankalp yatra', which propelled him to power in 2019. "Dear voter of Tirupati, my letter urging you to vote for our candidate Gurumoorthy in the upcoming Tirupati Lok Sabha bypoll must have reached you," said the YSRCP founder.

He exuded confidence that voters would support YSRCP after taking note of the State Government's welfare activities in the last 22 months

He said, "I know even if I personally do not campaign or request for votes in public meetings, for your children, sisters, villages and towns, for our Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and minority brothers and sisters, for our elders, you will support our government."

He reminded the voters of the personal letter he wrote to each family, listing the welfare schemes they benefited from. Tirupati Lok Sabha bypoll is the first decisive election after the 2019 General Elections in Andhra Pradesh, necessitated by the untimely death of YSRCP MP Balli Durga Prasad in 2020 due to corona virus.