KCR,Naidu pull off wins

Congress pays a price for division of state, draws a blank in AP, wins one seat in Telangana

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in alliance with the BJP, and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) are all set to form the first governments in Seemandhra and Telangana respectively.

Catching everybody by surprise, the TDP led by the never-say-die N Chandrababu Naidu is headed for a landslide victory along with its poll partner BJP in Seemandhra having bagged 102 Assembly seats in the 175-member House of the residuary state, much more than the required 88 seats to form the government. The party was also leading in four other constituencies.

In Telangana, the TRS crossed the magic figure of 60 seats (out of 119 Assembly seats) to form the government having bagged 61 seats and leading in two other constituencies. The Congress and the BJP-TDP alliance, again surprisingly, have won 16 Assembly seats each in Telangana, with the ruling party leading in four other seats and the alliance leading in five. The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen accounted for seven seats in the city.

The TDP’s main rival in Seemandhra, YSR Congress, was trailing behind with a tally of 65 seats and leading in two others. Leading from upfront, Naidu himself won the Kuppam Assembly seat in Chittoor district by a margin of over 50,000 votes over his nearest YSR Congress rival Chandramouli.

The TDP, which was virtually written off post-bifurcation of the state, bounced back impressively, evident from the party’s impressive showing in the local bodies’ elections results of which were announced earlier this week.

In the Lok Sabha elections too, the TDP-BJP combine has stolen the march over YSRC, bagging 11 of the 25 seats and leading in six others. The YSRC has won seven Lok Sabha seats and is leading in just one. The party’s impressive showing is being attributed mainly to the development plank which it had pushed during campaign and more importantly, Naidu’s proven track record as a ‘performing’ chief minister during his nine year tenure between 1995 and 2004.

Naidu returns to power after a gap of 10 years, and is immediately faced with several challenges including development of a model capital city for Seemandhra and running the administration on a tight budget. The residuary state, however, has been given several concessions in the Telangana bill including special status for the state. Speaking to the media, a visibly elated Naidu said: “All the forecasts by pollsters that the TDP would not come to power in Seemandhra have been proven wrong. In fact, we should have done even better in Telangana too, where we have put up an impressive show. My party has been working for the Telugu people in the past 30 years, but some people created some rift among them.”

Stating that the decision to have a truck with BJP was taken only in national interest, the chief minister-in-waiting said: “Congress tried to act extra smart on the Telangana issue, and has paid a price for it. This is a people’s victory and justice has finally been delivered since people are with me.”

Prominent among the losers in Seemandhra were YSRC honorary president Y S Vijayamma, mother of YSRC chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, who lost to BJP Andhra unit president K Haribabu from Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency and N Raghuveera Reddy, Seemandhra Congress president from Penukonda Assembly segment. Jagan himself, though, won with a comfortable margin of over 75,000 votes from Pulivendula Assembly constituency.

Prime Minister-in-waiting Narendra Modi and BJP president Rajnath Singh called up Naidu and congratulated him.

Meanwhile, KCR, speaking to the media after his party’s win, said: “I accept the mandate of the people with all humility. The TRS Legislature Party and the MPs will meet tomorrow where we will chalk out our future course of action. My party will seek Modi’s help in developing state.” Stating that his party will fulfill all the promises made by it in its manifesto, KCR said: “The priority for us is to ensure that cases against students who participated in the separate statehood movement are quashed. Besides, it is our responsibility to take care of the families of the hundreds of martyrs who laid down their lives for the cause.”

• India