The first phase of polling in Andhra Pradesh is on April 16, but there is no single party that appears in a comfortable position.
The first phase of polling in Andhra Pradesh is on April 16, but there is no single party that appears in a comfortable position. It might lead to a hung assembly for the first time. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Congress are expected to split the Lok Sabha seats with Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) ending up with about five seats.
Apart from the electoral debut of matinee idol PRP, the state is also seeing old friends-turned-foes, the TDP, the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS), and the two left parties, coming back together to fight the ruling Congress for the 294 state assembly and 42 Lok Sabha seats. Former IAS officer Jayaprakash Narayan’s Lok Satta could be the dark horse and open its account with a low double digit win for the Assembly.
The new entrant, PRP is beset with widespread dissidence with disgruntled ticket-seekers and some high-profile leaders quitting the party. The north coastal region comprises five parliamentary constituencies, Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam, Vijayanagaram, Araku and Anakapally, and 34 assembly constituencies with caste equations playing a major role in who wins.
Some high-profile contestants include D Purandeshwari of the Congress. She is pitted against the BJP’s Subba Rao and MVVS Murthy of the TDP. The other big ticket candidate is Chiranjeevi’s brother-in-law and general secretary of the PRP Allu Aravind, who has unleashed all the family cine glamour including his actor son Allu Arjun and nephew Teja in the neighbouring Anakapally, one of Asia’s biggest jaggery trading centres. In Srikakulam, another neighbouring district, TDP strongman Yerrannaidu is expected to win.
Recent estimates put the PRP’s assembly wins at a single digit from the earlier 25 in the region. Likewise, its Lok Sabha win could be limited to just one seat. The Telangana heartland is likely to give a different verdict in the general elections this time. Despite the anti-Telangana image, the Congress is finding an edge over others, courtesy a series of errors committed by the opponents.
The region has 119 out of 294 Assembly constituencies and 17 out of 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. In the first phase, elections are being held in 22 Lok Sabha constituencies.
While in 2004 election, the ruling Congress party had an ally in the TRS led by K Chandrasekhara Rao, this time it is going alone. TRS broke away from Congress and is now part of the alliance formed with the combination of the TDP and two Left parties in addition to the TRS.
The TRS has been demanding separate statehood to Telangana and this slogan had made it the only political party to go to people in the region with any appeal. With this, the Congress had tied up with the TRS in 2004. Naidu’s TDP has always been a party supporting United Andhra slogan, which had resulted in a low voter support to the TDP. However, things changed in the last five years. While Naidu has turned pro Telangana, the Congress is yet to commit on the statehood issue.
Interestingly, the separate statehood slogan, which was the only issue in 2004 election, has taken a back seat this time. In fact, it is proving to be a non-issue in this election.
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