N Pulivendula Assembly constituency, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) made a clean sweep as the candidates supported by the party won all the 108 gram panchayats. In the Kuppam assembly limits, candidates supported by the YSRCP won 75 of the 89 Gram Panchayats. What is the significance of these constituencies as well as the rest of the 13,000 gram panchayats to which elections were held?
Pulivendula is represented by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and Kuppam by Opposition leader and former chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu in the Assembly. The result sums up how the YSRCP decimated the Opposition TDP in the gram panchayat elections after it drubbed the party in the 2019 Assembly elections. Though the gram panchayat elections are held on a non-party basis, they were never so as political parties would put up their candidates to extend their ground-level grip.
Another important observation to be noted is that candidates supported by the YSRCP have polled 31,000 more votes than the TDP candidates in all the 89 gram panchayats in Kuppam — the seat Naidu won with a majority of over 20,000 votes in the 2019 Assembly elections.
The YSRCP has claimed that candidates supported by the party have won over 10,450 gram panchayats, which is more than 80 per cent of the total gram panchayats, which is a record of sorts by any standards. The TDP barely made its presence felt by winning about 2,000 gram panchayats. The BJP, which is trying to gain a foothold in the State, allied with the Janasena, but had to be content with about 190 and the Congress was nowhere in the picture. The result was humiliating for the TDP as almost all its prominent leaders failed to ensure their candidates victory in their native villages. Chandrababu’s brother-in-law and Hindupur TDP MLA Nandamuri Balakrishna had also cut a sorry figure with 30 of the 38 gram panchayats going in favour of the YSRCP.
The outcome of gram panchayat elections answered several issues the ruling YSRCP was facing and posed several questions to the main Opposition TDP.After the huge victory in the 2019 elections, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has implemented almost all of his poll promises, including numerous welfare schemes benefitting all sections of the society. His governance has ensured that the schemes reached the doorstep of the beneficiaries without any pilferage and malpractices.
The anti-incumbency against Chandrababu Naidu, which catapulted Jagan Mohan Reddy to power, seems to have turned into a positive vote in favour of Jagan Mohan Reddy during his 20-month rule so far. “There was no sign of any anti-incumbency and in fact there is a positive surge in favour of the ruling party, which gave the YSRCP supported candidates such a mandate,” a political analyst observed.
Usually, any ruling party would have a slight advantage in gram panchayat or local body elections, but such a one-sided mandate has proved that the YSRCP has entrenched itself as a party in villages. It could reinforce its cadre base at grass-root level which will come in handy for the ensuing local-body elections and the next general elections. At the same time, the YSRCP has managed to push the TDP, which is considered to be a strong-cadre based party, to the sidelines.
This victory is significant for the YSRCP as the run up to the elections was not smooth for the ruling party. The Covid-19 pandemic and the protracted legal and administrative tussle with the State Election Commission (SEC) have in fact pushed the ruling party on the back foot. The government machinery performed its duty in a free and fair manner. The mandate also bolsters the confidence of the YSRCP with over 85 per cent of the rural electorate taking part in the elections.
At the same time, the outcome of the elections will pose serious questions to the TDP and its leader Chandrababu Naidu, who believed that the “misguided voters” handed him the defeat and he was not at fault in 2019. The dismal performance in gram panchayat elections, according to him, was due to “the rowdyism” and “failure” of the State Election Commission in discharging its duty. He is neither ready to believe that he is being pushed to the sidelines nor in a mood to see whether he is slowly becoming insignificant in Andhra Pradesh politics.
First, it was the Amaravati capital city issue which he has tried and is still trying to capitalise on. However, this did not cut much ice with the people not only in the remaining districts of the state but also in Krishna and Guntur districts, where the Capital city falls. Over 80 per cent of the gram panchayats were grabbed by YSRCP supporters.
Naidu, a leader with over 40-year-long political career, is not getting his math right. His political flip-flops, his indecisiveness, blurring political wisdom and restlessness are costing his party very dearly. He is barely clinging on to his political future with finger nails and looking down the barrel of the gun.
The other issue he and the BJP have tried very hard was Hindutva agenda. Both the parties have desperately tried to project the Chief Minister as anti-Hindu. But, both the parties fell flat on their face in their attempts as people did not believe their misinformation campaign. The BJP could not win even 100 gram panchayats. The party needs to do a lot of introspection. The Janasena, which does not have any organisational structure, needs to go back to the drawing board and redraw its plans.
Elections to the municipalities have been announced. Riding on the massive mandate in the gram panchayat elections, the ruling YSRCP would obviously push the pedal further. It appears that the TDP and other political parties have a very tough task on hand.
Devulapalli Amar
Advisor, National Media and Inter-state Affairs,
Government of Andhra Pradesh