In Ongole, the Sakshi newspaper works up its Stringers across the district

We hit the highway from Nellore even as the morning traffic in the town got thicker. Every half a kilometer, you spot a factory or a mill or a cluster of workshops on either side of the highway.

Our destination is Ongole, the headquarters of Prakasam district.

On the fringe of the town, we catch a mini-van in campaign mode, its loud speaker blaring slogans in Telugu. In the heart of Ongole, at a traffic intersection we spot a massive statue, fully covered, its hand pointing to a sign board that urges people to vote.

This practice of covering statues of political leaders is new. We saw this happen in Chennai. It is followed here - is this yet another rule of the Election Commission?

I have an appointment with the Bureau Chief of the Telugu newspaper, 'Sakshi'. This newspaper does not hide its colors or hold back its sympathies. It is the newspaper of the YSR Congress Party  of young politician Jaganmohan Reddy, son of a well known and popular Congress leader and chief minister of the then united Andhra Pragesh, Y. S. Rajashekara Reddy who lost his life in an air crash.

Jagan Reddy has kept alive his political fortunes with all kinds of campaigns, traversing the corners of this coastal state.

There is a double poll to be held here. People will vote for the state Assembly elections and they will also elect members of Parliament. Jagan's rival is the old warhorse Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

The buzz is that Jaganmohan's party is leading in the popularity race as of now.

File photo of Telugu newspapers seen in Ongole

In a quiet street of Ongole, Sakshi's office is located on the first floor of a bungalow. The morning meeting of Stringers and Bureau Heads is in session in one room; the door of the Bureau Head is closed after I am shown a seat in the Reporters' Room. Journalism is highly competitive in the Andhra region. And that competitiveness runs deep, even to the mandal level.

I pass time by running through a file of the tabloid section of the local edition of Sakshi. Some 50% of the 16 pages carry news and pictures on the elections. News in the mandals. A few pages feature tutorials on science - these are aimed at high school students who are taking their finale exams. I realise that the Sakshi group also has an educational business arm.

Prakasam district is one of Andhra's less shining district. Droughts have driven farmers to crisis after crisis, farm labour migrate far out and sharp businessmen make the best of the granite resources here.

Sakshi, like all leading Telugu newspapers has built a network of journalists who must cover right down to the local regions. Each of the 46 mandals has a Sakshi stringer ( a part timer) and there are 10 stringers in Ongole town, this being the district headquarters. This big team report to the Bureau Head and to the Edition Head.

Chendu, Sakshi's Bureau Head calls me in after a marathon meeting in a closed room. And he gives me the background to the genesis and growth of mandal-level journalism that has given rise to Stringers-based journalism.

When the charismatic actor-politician N. T. Rama Rao came to power in A. P. on the back of a massive popular vote for regional pride, he re-jigged the administrative set-up, giving importance even to the mandals.

"This gave rise to a new breed of local politicians and political activity and indirectly led to newspaper's appointing Stringer's to cover local news," explains Chendu. "Smartphones and social media platforms has helped their communication a lot."

Stringers use their handphones to click pictures, record long speeches ( to cull key points to use in their copy) and when it comes to a sharp deadline, they file stories in Telugu from the news spots via WhatsApp.

"We have many centers across the district where there are personal computers for the Stringers to use," explains Chendu. "The facilities are provided to ensure news flows seamlessly, especially at times like elections."

What Chendu does not tell me is that all these part-timers get paid a paltry sum of money for their efforts.

At Sakshi's Ongole headquarters some 12 sub-editors keep track of all the Stringers as their copy e-mailed to this centre in Ongole flows in post early afternoon. 

"Our circulation is up by 20,000 copies since elections were announced," Chendu tells me. 

"So people want to read the news even though economic conditions are bad here?", I ask.

"They do," says Chendu.