TDP’s Total Rout In Andhra; Setback To TRS In Telangana

It was total rout of Nara Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh.  YSRCP President Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, who lost the 2014 general elections by a narrow margin of less than 1 per cent vote share, spearheaded the rout of TDP.

The YSRCP is set to win all the 25 Lok Sabha seats and nearly 150 assembly seats out of 175.

Though Naidu has managed to retain his own Kuppam seat in Chittoor district,   his son Nara Lokesh may not win from Mangalagiri in politically volatile Guntur district.

If so, it is curtains for Naidu and the TDP in the State of Andhra Pradesh.  Also, his grand plans to emerge as the “King or Kingmaker” in Delhi stands shattered.

Ipso facto, Naidu actively attempted to forge opposition unity on the plank of “Mahagathbandan – Grand Alliance” by creating doubts about the BJP-led NDA crossing the 200 mark.

He also made frequent whirlwind trips not only to Delhi but also to other State capitals ruled by opposition parties to meet all opposition party leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav, Deve Gowda, MK Stalin, Arvind Kejriwal among others. 

However, Chandrababu Naidu failed to forge a pre-poll alliance, what with the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party deciding to come together to fight the polls in UP on a common platform, and the failure of the AAP and Congress Party in forging an alliance in Delhi.

Even in his home state Andhra Pradesh, Naidu failed to align with the Congress Party and others on a common platform to overcome the YSRCP’s unrelenting surge, with the mother and sister of Jaganmohan Reddy launching an all-out campaign against the TDP.

Another X-factor was Pawan Kalyan, leader of Jana Sena, who refused to enter the electoral fray in 2014, but helped the TDP win the polls by a whisker. His party has drawn a blank in the Lok Sabha and may get one seat in the Assembly constituencies.  His personal defeat from two assembly constituencies – Palakole, his native in West Godavari district, where his Kapu community form the major chunk of voters, and Gajuwaka in Visakhapatnam, another Kapu dominated constituency – should serve as an eye opener to those who trust on either ‘film glamour’ or caste groups.

Similarly, K Chandrasekhara Rao’s TRS, too is set to suffer worst ever set back this time around.  He claimed to sweep the polls by winning all the 16 out of 17 with MIM, its ally, winning the lone Hyderabad seat.  His confidence was borne out of the assembly polls results.  In the December 2018 assembly polls, the TRS managed to sweep the polls winning 89 seats of total 117.

But, the counting trends indicate that TRS may end up just winning 8 MP seats.  Surprisingly, the BJP and Congress are set to win four seats each.  What is more shocking to TRS and his party patriarch KCR is that his daughter, K Kavitha is set to lose in Nizamabad, where her nearest rival BJP candidate D Aravind, is leading by over 50,000 votes.  Her defeat poses serious threat to the party’s unity in future as KCR’s nephew and most popular leader T Harish Rao, was deliberately sidelined at the time of election campaigning.  KCR made no bones when he admitted that his true political heir is his son K T Rama Rao and certainly not nephew Harish Rao, though he is most acceptable among party cadre.

The TRS ally, AIMIM, whose traditional Hyderabad seat has gone unchallenged till today, too is witnessing some anxious moments as its tallest leader Asaduddin Owaisi, was seen trailing initially. However, he could bounce back to take the lead over his nearest BJP rival.

By increasingly its tally in Telangana state, the BJP seems to succeed in its ‘Mission 2024’ to emerge as a major player in state politics.  If the BJP retains its lead and wins four seats, then Amit Shah-Modi combination’s ‘mission’ is half accomplished.