VIJAYAWADA: The public mandate in East and West Godavari districts was in favour of YSR Congress (YSRC), and it largely reflected the public opinion across the State.
Voters in Godavari delta rejected Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP, which of late, has been dubbed the U-Turn party for its stance on Special Category Status (SCS) to the State and other issues. Compared to the 2014 elections, when it bagged 26 out of 34 Assembly constituencies, the TDP could manage to get just six seats.
On the other hand, the YSRC saw a reversal of its fortunes. Compared to five seats in 2014 elections, Jagan’s party bagged 27 seats out of the total 34.
The people of West Godavari district had given a clear mandate to the TDP, which bagged 14 of the 15 Assembly constituencies and the remaining one was won by its ally BJP, in the 2014 elections. It managed to get just two seats in the 2019 elections. The YSRC, which scored a ‘duck’ in 2014, made secured 13 MLA seats.
In East Godavari, out of the 19 MLA seats, the TDP could manage to win five as against 12 in the 2014 elections. The YSRC bagged 13 Assembly constituencies as against its tally of just five in the 2014 elections. Jana Sena opened its account with victory in the Razole Assembly constituency.
However, the biggest loser was actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena. As against predictions that Jana Sena will make the difference and spilt the votes of both TDP and YSRC, the party has failed to make a mark. Except for the lone battle waged by Rapaka Vara Prasad Rao of the party in Razole Assembly constituency, none of the Jana Sena candidates made it to even the second place. Even party chief Pawan Kalyan lagged behind till the end and suffered defeat in Bhimavaram.
The ‘Kapu factor’ that Jana Sena was banking on, has failed to give any advantage to the party, as the Kapu vote was distributed among TDP, Jana Sena and YSRC. The failure of TDP to get the promised ‘BC’ tag to Kapus and cases booked against many of the Kapu leaders during the ‘Tuni’ arson incident case are also being said to be some of the reasons for the TDP’s defeat in Godavari delta.
The ‘ill-treatment’ of Kapu patriarch Mudragada Padmanabham by the TDP, which had put him under house arrest, when he wanted to protest in a democratic manner is also seen as one of the reasons for voters in the community to turn against it. Naidu’s last-minute effort to woo Kapus by offering 5 per cent of the 10 per cent reservation announced for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) by the Centre to them, did not cut any ice with the community.
Development and welfare agenda of the YSRC seems to have attracted more attention than the promise of Chandrababu Naidu on the issue. For some time, people of both the districts were disappointed as the TDP government failed to fulfil its promise of generating jobs.
Of the five Lok Sabha segments, the YSRC failed to win a single one in 2014, but it won all the five this time around.