"When TV channels left YSR perturbed"

DESARAJU SURYA
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy is normally as cool as cucumber, one who hardly gets worked up.
May 16, however, was different. For more than two hours on the day of counting of votes, anxiety was writ large on his face and Rajasekhara Reddy looked every bit tensed up.
For, the Telugu news television channels constantly put the TDP-led Grand Alliance in the lead as trends started coming in from various constituencies.
“Almost all channels showed that the Grand Alliance was leading in 138 constituencies and gave just 120 for the Congress. So, the normally cool Chief Minister started getting tensed up,” a close aide of Rajasekhara Reddy said.
As tension started mounting, Rajasekhara Reddy constantly chewed Gelusil antacid tablets and, at one point, was found biting two tablets at the same time. “The television channels have perturbed the unperturbed. We have never seen him so worked up in the last five years, even when he faced odds,” the aide pointed out.
The Chief Minister chose to ignore the projections coming on the television channel owned by his son because “it will anyway show us in the lead.” At one stage, Rajasekhara Reddy reportedly warned his channel people to “give a true picture.”
On the other hand, the CMO officials and staff who were waiting for the “moment” to burst crackers in jubilation, too remained bewildered. They had specially brought a 10,000-wallah cracker from Vijayawada for the celebration “but the moment seemed to have eluded us for a while.”
It was only around 11.40 am that Rajasekhara Reddy got the first indication that he would indeed be retaining power. “By 12 noon, it became very much clear that the Congress will retain power without any support from others. Only then did the Chief Minister regain composure,” a highly-placed official in the Chief Minister’s Office said. Thereafter, crackers were burst and sweets were distributed in celebration.
However, Rajasekhara Reddy is still “disappointed” that the Congress did not end up with a tally of 180 seats in the 294-member AP Assembly.