YSRC breaks record, retains Tirupati

VIJAYAWADA: The ruling YSRC on Sunday retained Tirupati Lok Sabha seat (SC reserved) by winning the bypoll with a thumping majority of 2.71 lakh votes, which is more than the victory margin it secured in the 2019 general elections.YSRC candidate  M Gurumurthy maintained lead from the first round of counting itself and secured more votes than former Union minister and TDP nominee Panabaka Lakshmi in all the seven Assembly segments falling under Tirupati parliamentary constituency. 

The YSRC vote share had gone up by more than 1 per cent compared to the last elections proving that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s popularity remains as high as in 2019 mostly due to the plethora of welfare schemes launched by his government.While Gurumurthy secured more than 6.26 lakh votes of the total 11 lakh polled in the bypoll, the TDP stood at a distant second with 3.53 lakh votes. The BJP-Jana Sena Party combine failed to put up a strong fight and could get just a little over 56,000 votes while the two other national parties — the Congress and the CPM — polled less than NOTA.  

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of sitting YSRC MP Balli Durga Prasad Rao due to Covid-19 last year.  All the main political parties took the bypoll prestigiously and campaigned vigorously to win the seat. Though the YSRC announced that it would win the seat with a majority of over three lakh votes, but could get a victory margin of 2.71 lakh votes. 

Attributing it to the low voter turnout in the bypoll, senior YSRC leader and TTD Trust Board Chairman YV Subba Reddy said the party would have won with a majority of more than three lakh votes if the polling percentage was higher like in the last elections. “Covid-19 had an adverse impact on the polling percentage in the bypoll. In 2019 elections, the voting percentage was nearly 79, while it came down to 64.42 in the bypoll. If the polling percentage was higher like in 2019, the majority would have been more than 3 lakh,’’ he said.

While the YSRC banked on the development plank, the TDP and BJP-JSP combine had vigorously campaigned against the ‘misdeeds’ of the YSRC rule, which did not fetch them the anticipated results. 
For the TDP, which is fresh from the debacles it suffered in gram panchayat and urban local body elections, the defeat in Tirupati bypoll came as a major setback with the likelihood of more voices rising against the leadership of N Chandrababu Naidu. Apart from senior leaders like AP TDP chief K Atchannaidu and Nara Lokesh, Naidu himself campaigned extensively  in all the seven Assembly segments, but could not win the hearts of the electorate.

The TDP vote share, which was 37.65 per cent in 2019, declined by almost 5 per cent as it could get only 3.53 lakh votes of the total 11.02 lakh polled. The BJP, which wanted to give a push in AP after its recent success in neighbouring Telangana, failed to make a mark. The saffron party stood third by polling a meagre 56,000-odd votes. Its vote share, however, rose to 5.17 per cent from 1.22 per cent in 2019, but this could be attributed to its alliance with Jana Sena Party. 

The BJP’s hopes to prove itself as an alternative to TDP could not fructify and the elections also proved a point that its communal plank and branding Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy as ‘anti-Hindu’ would not work in AP. During the campaign, which was attended by its national leaders as well as from neighbouring Telangana, the BJP tried to portray the YSRC government and Jagan as working against the interests of Hindus and raked up communal card without any major gains in the bypoll. 

BYPOLL RESULT

M Gurumurthy        YSRC  6,26,108

Panabaka Lakshmi   TDP    3,53,792