VIJAYAWADA: As the initial results of the fourth phase of the gram panchayat elections started to trickle in, the YSRC leaders and activists went into a celebration mode on Sunday. The party office at Tadepalli witnessed a hub of activity with the party leaders, ministers and MLAs joining the celebration of the party supporters.
“The fourth phase of panchayat polls sealed the downfall of TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu’s political career. Naidu’s downfall started in the 2019 Assembly polls and it is sealed with the TDP debacle in the panchayat polls, pushing the TDP cadre and its leaders to stare at an uncertain future,’’ party general secretary Talasila Raghuram claimed as the results showed a clear victory, once again, for the ruling party. Raghuram said in all the four phases, voters had given a verdict for the good governance of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
“The victory of the YSRC in the panchayat polls sounded the death knell for the TDP in the State. All the conspiracies floated by Naidu during the panchayat polls to defeat the spirit of YSRC cadre didn’t stand before the welfare schemes (Navaratnalu) implemented by the Chief Minister,’’ he argued. People had voted the sarpanch candidates supported by the YSRC to victory across the 13 districts of the State right from Kuppam Assembly constituency represented by Naidu for nearly four decades to Mangalagiri, where Nara Lokesh contested unsuccessfully in the 2019 polls, he said.
Joining the celebrations at the Tadepalli office, Water Resources Minister P Anil Kumar Yadav said the YSRC got the mandate of more than 85 per cent of the electorate in the panchayat elections. “We will repeat the performance in the ensuing elections to urban local bodies and MPTCs and ZPTCs,’’ he asserted. In Kuppam, the TDP managed to win only 14 of the 89 panchayats, which shows that the opposition party has lost people’s trust even in Naidu’s own constituency, he said.
Bapatla MP Nandigama Suresh wondered if the TDP will have any candidates to field in the next elections. “The TDP faced a debacle even on Naidu’s home turf. It is a pity that Naidu, who claims to have played a key role in the state and national politics, could not lead his party to victory even in his own constituency,’’ the MP deplored. Party MLA Vidatala Rajini said it is a vote by the people of the State to pay gratitude to the Chief Minister, who had launched several welfare schemes for the benefit of all sections of people.