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The first phase polling in the State is over and different political parties and their affiliated dailies predicted that voters’ mandate went in their favour. They are making their own calculations based on their own source of information. Though internally they know in which way the voters’ verdict would be, they are putting up a brave face.
Sakshi, predictably, has predicted that the Congress would not get less than 100 assembly seats out of 154 which went to polling in the first phase. To support its stand, it highlighted the “victory celebrations” of the Congress workers at Gandhi Bhavan. Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy gave clear edge to Mahakootami. In fact, Eenadu’s banner headline “Maha Tadakha” speaks for itself. However, the highlight of the day was Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s controversial comment on Telangana during his Nandyal rally. It kicked up a wide debate all over the state and people are discussing whether YSR is justified in making such a statement. Especially his comment that the people of Rayalaseema would be treated as “foreigners” in Hyderabad if Telangana state is formed, is a clear indication to YSR’s strategy to provoke anti-Telangana sentiment in the other two regions and get maximum benefit to the Congress. But one would definitely ask why the Congress has promised formation of Telangana in its manifesto and even appointed a committee to look into it. It is yet to be seen whether his comments would be of any help to the Congress in the second phase.
Both Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy made every effort to project YSR in the bad light in the wake of his comment on Telangana; while Sakshi gave it a different twist, quoting YSR as questioning whether the Telugu Desam was treating the people of Rayaseema as foreigners by joining hands with the TRS. However, his speech, repeatedly being telecast in the channels, clearly shows that YSR was opposing the Telangana state.
All the dailies, however, have given full marks to Chief Electoral Officer I V Subba Rao and the police chief A K Mohanty for conducting a peaceful and by and large fair polling in the first phase.
The Praja Rajyam said it would win 70 Assembly and 12 Lok Sabha seats in the first phase of polls.
The PR vice-president, Mr T. Devender Goud, on Thursday night said: “We did extremely well in the first phase.
The results will be surprising. The PR would sweep the polls in Telangana and north Andhra regions, which went for elections in the first phase.”
Mr Goud was addressing a media conference in the PR’s central office Along with the PR spokesperson, Mr P. Mitra, in Hyderabad on Thursday night.
Meanwhile, the BJP is hopeful of winning 13 Assembly and three Lok Sabha seats in the first phase of elections. The party leaders said BJP’s emergence as a Telangana icon has helped it.
The BJP spokesperson, Mr N. Rama Chandra Rao, said: “TRS sympathisers also voted for the BJP in Karimnagar and Mahbubnagar.
The overwhelming response is going to help us win good number of seats in Telangana region.”
April 16 (IANS) Over 65 percent of 31.2 million electors Thursday cast their votes in the first phase of elections in Andhra Pradesh where ballotting was held for 22 Lok Sabha and 154 assembly constituencies.
Barring minor incidents of violence, the polling remained peaceful. No radical leftwing violence was reported from any part of the state, once a stronghold of the Maoist movement in the country.
Polling ended at 4 p.m. However, in some polling booths officials allowed those standing in the queue to cast their votes even after the scheduled time.
The state’s Chief Electoral Officer I.V. Subba Rao told reporters this evening that polling was still on in 300 to 400 polling centres as authorities extended the timing in view of the delay caused in the morning due to technical snags in electronic voting machines (EVMs).
He said 65 percent of the 31.2 million voters, half of them women, cast their votes, sealing the fate of 2,148 candidates including 315 for the Lok Sabha.
The final poll percentage will be known after 9 p.m., he said.
The Medak Lok Sabha constituency recorded highest poll percentage of 75 while Hyderabad recorded the lowest at 54 percent.
“The polling was peaceful and smooth except for an incident in the Nagarkurnool Lok Sabha constituency,” he said.
Hyderabad and nine other districts in Telangana as well as three districts of north coastal Andhra bordering Orissa went to polls in the first phase.
The ruling Congress party and the four-party alliance led by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) are locked in a neck-and-neck battle in the first phase. The Praja Rajyam Party of superstar Chiranjeevi is the third major political force.
Among the prominent Lok Sabha candidates are central ministers S. Jaipal Reddy, Renuka Chowdhury and D. Purandareswari, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhara Rao and state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Bandaru Dattatreya.
In the Alampur assembly segment of the Nagarkurnool Lok Sabha constituency in Mahbubnagar district, villagers attacked polling stations and damaged EVMs. The polling had to be stopped in 17 polling centres. The incident occurred in Aiza area where people were protesting their inclusion in the Alampur constituency in the delimitation process.
Subba Rao said the matter was referred to the Election Commission, which will take a decision on re-poll in these booths.
Re-poll is also likely in a few other booths where the poll officials failed to operate EVMs as per the guidelines or committed some mistakes.
Clashes between activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) were reported in some places in the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency. There were reports of similar clashes between Congress and TDP activists in some constituencies. The polling, however, was not affected.
More than 60,000 policemen and 123 companies of paramilitary forces were deployed as part of the massive security arrangements.
Though the Maoist movement has considerably weakened in the state, police are on high alert, especially in areas bordering Chhattisgarh and Orissa.
Four helicopters were put on standby to ferry men and material as a precautionary measure but they were not used.
TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu, Chiranjeevi and his family members, CEO Subba Rao, Director General of Police A.K. Mohanty and several others cast their votes in Hyderabad.
Popular actor and TDP star campaigner ‘Junior NTR’ came to a polling station on a stretcher and cast his vote. The star, who was injured in a road accident, reached the centre in an ambulance.
The second phase of polls April 23 will cover 20 Lok Sabha and 150 assembly constituencies in south coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema.
Counting will be taken up May 16.
Re-polling is likely to be held only in 20 polling stations, where polling could not be held either due to minor clashes or non-functioning of electronic voting machines.
Chief Electoral Officer I V Subba Rao said there was absolutely no disturbance from Maoists this time. Polling was suspended in 14 polling stations at Aiza village of Nagarkurnool LS constituency in Mahabubnagar district, as a large section of voters boycotted polling in protest against inclusion of the village in Alampur constituency. They clashed with other section of voters who were standing in queue for voting and destroyed the EVMs.
The fear of cross voting and confusion over electoral symbols now haunts all major political parties in the state. Reports gathered from party sources by the Congress, the Telugu Desam, the TRS and the Praja Rajyam on the voting pattern in 154 Assembly and 22 Lok Sabha constituencies indicate largescale cross voting in many districts.
The last minute alliance between the TD and the TRS confused voters over the electoral symbol. Both the TRS and the Td fielded candidates in several constituencies despite electoral alliances. In these places the symbols of both the parties, car (TRS) and cycle (TD) were printed on electronic voting machines.
In the Secunderabad Parliamentary constituency both the TD and the TRS candidates are in fray “officially”, though both are part of the Mahakutami or the political grand alliance. Voters who wanted to support the Mahakutami were confronted by car and cycle symbols, making it difficult for them to choose between the two. Since the state Assembly and Parliament elections are held simultaneously, political parties fear that voters might have supported different candidates for Assembly and LS seats. Reports from Warangal indicate that it was a Herculean task for the Mahakutami members to tell the voters to cast their votes for the TRS in Warangal (SC) Lok Sabha and CPI candidate in Mahbubabad (ST) Lok Sabha seats. In many places it resulted in a lot of confusion.
In Palakurthy constituency, many TD supporters cast their votes thinking that they were voting for the TD candidate Mr Errabelli Dayakar Rao. But as the first EVM was that of the Lok Sabha candidate, they had inadvertently voted for the TD’s rebel Lok Sabha candidate, Mr Dommati Sambaiah, who got the cycle symbol. And later, most of them voted for the Congress nominee thinking that they were voting for the Lok Sabha candidate. But it was the Assembly candidate, Mr Dugyala Srinivasa Rao, who they voted for.
There was similar confusion in Station Ghanpur where the TD’s candidate, Mr Kadiam Srihari, is contesting against the Congress nominee, Mr T. Rajaiah.
There was a time when Murali Mohan was rarely seen except for the roles that he did in movies. It has been said that he was more of a low profile person and preferred to stay away from limelight. However, all that has changed now and that too for some real good reasons.
Nowadays, Murali Mohan is coming on Zee Telugu dance shows, public dos, meets etc and has been speaking to the media quite often. Given the fact that he has got into politics, many say that Murali Mohan has realized the need to make his presence felt whenever possible.
Right now, he has got a keen fight on his cards on the 23rd when he takes on Undavalli Arun Kumar from one end and rebel star Krishnamraju from the other for the Rajahmundry Parliament seat. It appears that all this public appearances will help Murali Mohan generate some mileage.
When it comes to gossips and rumors on print media, it has always been known as yellow journalism but then a new definition is coming for it. While the debate is on about that, here is an interesting story that can perhaps define it in a better way.
It is known that Jr NTR has been recuperating from a serious accident. So there was an article that came in the Surya paper which said that this was the result of a Kshudra pooja that took place at Thrissur in Kerala, which we already reported. The process is said to be called Kalabhairava Aghora Pooja but then all this was labeled as ‘Yellow Journalism’ by those who opposed the Surya article.
However, there are those who say that it is not yellow journalism, it is creative journalism. Something similar happened in the Sakshi issue when they came up with the videos of Chandrababu Naidu and his statements on KCR. So folks, it is no more ‘Yellow Journalism’, it is ‘Creative Journalism’.
A person from Surya News Daily said off the record, “It is time where people need some idea to think and discuss. Almost all news dailies are working on the same. Sakshi, Eenadu, Andhra Jyothy or Surya…the motive happening to be same. Although some news happens to be false, it is thought provoking element that is required. Hence we cannot call every fiction, as yellow journalism. It is creative journalism”.
