News Scan: The Final Battle Begins!

It was free for all on the penultimate day of second phase of polling in the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions. Huge amounts of cash and large quantities of liquor flew among voters, who would be deciding the fate of their future leader for the next five years.

While every political party did its best to lure voters with cash and liquor, it also tried to prevent its rivals from doing the same. The high drama in Tirupati, where the Congress workers staged dharna in front of the hotel where Praja Rajyam party president Chiranjeevi was staying was said to be only to divert the attention of the police from their own activity of distributing money and liquor elsewhere in the town. While the entire police force focussed on searching Chiranjeevi’s hotel room, they turned blind to distribution of money by the Congress workers in other parts. Same is the situation in Vijayawada, where the police authorities, led by the Congress leaders, attacked the house of TDP candidate Gadde Rammohan Rao to look for money, resulting in diversion of large number of TDP workers to the spot. The attention of the media and the police was only on this high drama, while the Congress workers carried out their own plan elsewhere. The police ignored the demand of the TDP workers to search the houses of Congress leaders Devineni Nehru and L Rajagopal.

Well, this is one side of the story published by Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy. On the other hand, Sakshi carried the other side of the story with Congress angle. This daily focussed on distribution of money by the CPI-M leaders in Kurnool and by the TDP leaders in Kuppam. The report said the Opposition leaders behaved in a high handed manner and prevented the police from carrying out searches. Sakshi also carried only the Congress version of the Tirupati incident and blamed it on Chiranjeevi for making a big drama. As regards the poll prospects, Sakshi carried the banner story stating that it would be a one-sided polling in favour of the Congress in the second phase; and the party would get not less than 115 assembly seats out of 140 going to polls on Thursday. It says the TDP position is miserable, while the PRP has totally become weak. The other two dailies said the Congress is desperately trying to cover up the loss made in the first phase, while the TDP is confident of sustaining the lead.

So, the final battle has begun!