NEWS
ANALYSIS
SPECIALS
INTERVIEW
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
CONSTITUENCY
ISSUES
GALLERY
MANIFESTOS
INDIA SPEAKS!
COUNTDOWN
CHAT
PREVIOUS RESULTS
SCHEDULE
DISCUSSION GROUP

Spectacular show by TDP, BJP in AP

Shireen in Hyderabad

In Andhra Pradesh, the ruling Telugu Desam Party, along with its poll ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party is heading for a spectacular show in the simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assembly.

In the assembly, the TDP has already secured a simple majority, and will be able to form a government on its own and without the BJP support.

Already, one learns, Chandrababu Naidu is expected to go ahead with his pet projects with renewed vigour. One imminent move would be to have a separate ministry for information technology. And bring a state government infotech enterprise, currently under the planning department, within the purview of the IT department.

The TDP bagged 128 assembly seats and is leading in another 47. The BJP secured nine seats and established leads in two others. The Congress, on the other hand, has won 72 seats so far and is leading in 18. The Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen got four assembly seats. Independents and others accounted for the remaining seats.

In the Lok Sabha polls, the TDP has so far bagged 29 seats (including leading). The BJP secured five seats and is leading in two others. The MIM retained the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat.

The Congress has suffered serious reverses in the state with its tally dropping steeply. As against the 22 seats held in the Lok Sabha from Andhra Pradesh, the Congress has got only three seats this time and was leading in three others.

In the Nalgonda Lok Sabha seat, G Sukender Reddy of the TDP defeated his nearest Congress rival K Janardhan Reddy by a margin of 25,744 votes. The TDP wrests the seat from the CPI.

In the Warangal Lok Sabha seat, the TDP's B Venkateswarlu defeated the Congress' Dr T Kalpana Devi by 13,366 votes.

The TDP, which suffered a serious setback in the south coastal districts of the state in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections, virtually made a clean sweep this time, winning ten seats, while the BJP bagged two seats in the region.

Former chief minister N Janardhan Reddy of the Congress was the only leader to survive the onslaught of the TDP-BJP combine. Reddy trounced the TDP general secretary Lal Janbasha in the Narsaraopet Lok Sabha constituency.

Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi (Amalapuram), former Union minister B B Ramaiah (Eluru), senior TDP leader Ummareddy Venkateswarlu (Tenali) and noted film producer D Rama Naidu (Bapatla) were among the ten TDP candidates who won from the region.

Many of the Congress stalwarts lost the Lok Sabha elections in the state. They include Congress Working Committee member Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy in Kurnool, former Union minister P Shiv Shankar in Tenali, former AP Congress president Mohammed Kamaluddin Ahmed in Hanamkonda, former chief minister Nadendla Bhaskar Rao in Secunderabad and former Union minister P Upendra in Vijayawada. Senior Congress leader T Subbirami Reddy has lost from Visakhapatnam.

The prominent Congress leaders who won include Renuka Chowdary in Khammam and S Jaipal Reddy in Miryalaguda.

In Anakapalli Lok Sabha seat, G Srinivasa Rao of the TDP beat nearest rival Gurunadha Rao Gudivada of the Congress by 58,464 votes.

Bojjapallai Rajaiah of the TDP beat nearest rival Pulla Padmavathi of the Congress in Parkal (SC) by 15,094 votes.

In Hyderabad, Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi of the AIMIM beat nearest rival Baddam Bal Reddy of the BJP by 60,821 votes.

G Sukender Reddy of the TDP beat nearest rival Janardhan Reddy of the Congress by 25,744 votes.

Bhuma Nagi Reddy of the TDP defeated G Pratapa Reddy of the Congress by 72,609 votes in a multicornered contest in Nandyal. The TDP retained the seat.

In Guntur, Y Venkateswararao of the TDP defeated his Congress rival Rayapati Sambasiva Rao by 40,330 votes. Here, the TDP wrested the seat from the Congress.

N Ramakrishna Reddy of the TDP beat closest rival R Gopinath of the Congress by 18,638 votes in Chittoor.

In Tirupathi (SC), BJP nominee Dr N Venkataswamy defeated his Congress rival, Chinta Mohan, by 12,497 votes. The BJP wrested the seat from the Congress.

In the assembly polls, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu retained Kuppam by a majority of 65,225 votes. Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president Y S Rajasekhar Reddy was also elected from Pulivendula in Cuddapah district by a comfortable majority. His brother Y S Vivekananda Reddy has been declared elected from the Cuddapah LS seat.

Most of the Cabinet colleagues of Chandrababu Naidu retained their seats. Similarly, many of the other TDP sitting legislators, too, got elected.

Both the Communist parties, which won 30 assembly seats in alliance with the TDP in the last elections, faced a near rout.

Interestingly, a lot of floor leaders were floored at the hustings. Barring the MIM floor leader in the outgoing assembly Asaduddin Owaisi, who retained his home seat Charminar in Hyderabad by a whopping majority of 94,747 votes, the floor leaders of other parties were humiliated by the electorate in their respective constituencies.

Heading the list of floor leaders who were trounced in this election is the Congress Legislature Party leader P Janardhan Reddy who lost to his TDP rival and former Central Bureau of Investigation director K Vijayarama Rao in the Khairatabad constituency in the state capital by a margin of 10,377 votes.

Communist Party of India floor leader Puvvada Nageswara Rao was defeated in the Khammam assembly segment. Communist Party of India-Marxist floor leader Paturi Ramaiah, too, was trounced in the Nidumolu assembly segment. Majlis Bachao Tahreek floor leader Mohammed Amanullah Khan also lost to his MIM rival Akbaruddin Owaisi in Chandrayangutta of Hyderabad.

For the TDP founder-patriarch, late N T Rama Rao's widow Lakshmi Parvathi, who heads the NTR-TDP, the polls proved disastrous. She shifted out of Pathapatnam and contested from Sompeta and Eluru. However, she failed to save even her security deposit in both the assembly seats. She hardly polled a couple of thousand votes.

The BJP floor leader in the outgoing assembly Baddam Bal Reddy did not contest the assembly polls since he was fielded for the Lok Sabha from the Hyderabad constituency. He lost to MIM candidate and former MP Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi by a margin of 60,821 votes in the parliamentary constituency.

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president Y S Rajasekhara Reddy who had maintained till the last minute that his party would capture more than 200 seats, said he was accepting the people's verdict and that the Congress would play the role of a responsible opposition in the assembly.

ALSO SEE
Naidu is fourth CM to return to power
TDP sweep vote of confidence for Naidu
'No CM has worked as hard as Naidu'
Andhra Pradesh in the time of Naidu

Tell us what you think of this report