DESARAJU SURYA
Hyderabad: Political parties in Andhra Pradesh have started re-working their arithmetic and strategies for the second phase of elections on April 23, going by the polling percentage and trends in the first phase on April 16.
The ruling Congress is more worried after the first phase of polling as the TDP-led Grand Alliance has caused a certain dent to its prospects in the crucial Telangana region which has a majority of 117 seats in the 294-member state Assembly. Besides, the Congress has also lost much ground in the three north coastal Andhra districts contrary to initial expectations where the party was expected to do well.
The Grand Alliance looks set to win at least 90-100 seats out of the 154 Assembly constituencies that went to polls today, as per the trends available till late in the evening. Interestingly, the Praja Rajyam Party of actor Chiranjeevi, which was virtually written off in the Telangana region, is about to open its account by bagging a few seats particularly in Nizamabad and Adilabad districts. It also has hopes of winning one or two seats in Greater Hyderabad. In north coastal Andhra too, the PRP will bag at least 8-10 seats, as per the post-poll trends.
The Congress, on the other hand, should consider itself lucky if it gets over 30 seats from the first phase poll. In Telangana region in particular, the ruling party suffered a major blow because of its topsy-turvy stance on the separate statehood demand.
The MIM, which has a rather overt understanding with the Congress, is expected to improve its tally from the current five and that should be a consolation for the ruling party.
“The Congress stands no chance of winning as we will bag about 100 seats out of the first phase constituencies,” CPM state secretary B V Raghavulu claimed.
Similarly, of the 22 Lok Sabha constituencies that went to polls today, the Grand Alliance is the front-runner to bag at least 17. With the last minute efforts to win over the “rebels” bearing fruit, the PRP is confident of winning the Anakapalle Lok Sabha seat, where the party general secretary and Chiranjeevi’s brother-in-law Allu Aravind is the candidate.
Going by these trends, the parties are now busy re-working their strategies for the second phase polls in Andhra and Rayalaseema regions. The Grand Alliance has already created a positive impact with the promised Cash Transfer Scheme as its trump card. Besides, there are many negative factors working against the Congress like the forcible acquisition of thousands of acres of fertile land for the special economic zones, rampant corruption and the plight of the farmers who suffered heavily because of the fertilizer crisis as well as lack of remunerative prices.
In East and West Godavari districts, the PRP is sure to make a strong impact going by the caste equations and it will eat mostly into the Congress votes. This places the Grand Alliance in an advantageous position in the phase-2 as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment