"Neither the TDP lost nor the Congress won the AP elections"

Hyderabad: Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu has said the Congress managed to retain power in Andhra Pradesh only “by default” as 63.22 per cent of the electorate “rejected” it.
“Clearly, people did not give their mandate for Y S Rajasekhara Reddy or the Congress in the state. They wanted the TDP back but the Grand Alliance lost the race by a margin of just 1.76 per cent votes. While the Congress polled 36.78 per cent votes, the Grand Alliance (TDP-TRS-CPM-CPI) got 35.2 per cent.
Two-thirds of the voters rejected the Congress while only one-third favoured it in the recent Assembly elections,” Chandrababu noted, analysing the poll results at the TDP’s two-day annual conference Mahanadu.
Had it been a mandate for the Congress in the state, the party should have got 231 Assembly seats, going by the 33 Lok Sabha seats it won here. It, however, managed only 156 seats, a slender margin over the magic figure of 148, the TDP chief pointed out.
“There was no positive vote for the Congress and it retained power not on merit but only by default,” he added.
He said there was a gross split in the opposition votes which prevented TDP’s return to power. The Praja Rajyam Party of actor Chiranjeevi did the main damage, securing 16.22 per cent votes and 18 seats.
“The Grand Alliance could not achieve results as expected but the Congress is certainly not a winner. We have emerged stronger, increasing our tally from 47 in 2004 to 92 now,” Chandrababu elaborated and promised to play a constructive role as the principal opposition party.
“We shall be uncompromising on issues of people’s concern. Our relentless struggle against corruption will continue,” the TDP chief asserted.
Maintaining that the TDP was not opposed to construction of irrigation projects in the state, Chandrababu said they were only opposed to the large-scale corruption in execution of the projects. He wanted the state government to complete the projects in a time-bound manner.
He said the TDP was committed to the promise of cash transfer scheme for the poor and promised to implement it whenever the party was elected to power in future.
While promising his party’s total support for reservations for women in legislatures, Chandrababu demanded that the Centre enact a legislation in this regard without delay.