It is a great victory for Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy who fought against all odds -- there were no star campaigners for the party, a united opposition, a sort of non-cooperation from within the party and entry of a new political party, Praja Rajyam, which has a backing of a strong community in coastal Andhra,
The Congress has 157 seats in the 294-member assembly, while the Telugu Desam-led Mahakutami could win only 106 seats, including 91 for TDP, 10 for TRS, four for CPI and one for CPI-M. The PRP remained a poor third with 18 seats. Others could get 13 seats, including two BJP, one Lok Satta, seven MIM and three independents.
The election results have surprised the poll-pundits, who were predicting that there would be a hung assembly in the state this time and that the seats of PRP would be crucial in deciding the fate of the new government.
There are many reasons for the victory of the Congress in the assembly elections. The main reason is that it was completely a positive vote for the Congress government. In the last five years, the YSR government had fulfilled all its promises on implementing welfare and development programmes. The schemes implemented by the Congress government fetched YSR the victory. Thus, there was no anti-incumbency factor this time. The anti-government vote, if any, was split between the TDP and the PRP. Secondly, the alliance with the TRS proved to be a nemesis for the TDP. The TRS has not only fared poorly even in the Telangana strongholds, but also spoiled the chances of the TDP. This was evident from the way the Congress won more than 40 seats in Telangana region. There was no transfer of votes even among the TDP and the Communist parties in many areas.
And the PRP also spoiled the TDP chances. Chiranjeevi's social justice slogan failed to impress the people and he heavily banked on caste polarisation, especially the Kapu factor in the coastal Andhra, hoping to eat into the Congress vote bank. But, it could only eat into the TDP votes, damaging the latter's prospects. Chiranjeevi himself lost his Palacole assembly segment in his native West Godavari district, though he won the Tirupati seat with a meagre margin of around 10,000 votes. Analysts say the TDP would have benefitted much, had there been no PRP in the fray; or there should have been an alliance between the Congress and the TDP.
Finally, the TDP's much-hyped cash transfer scheme and supply of free colour televisions to the poor also have failed to make any impact on the electorate.
