VIJAYAWADA: Though the Opposition TDP won two municipalities with a slender margin, it is now on the job of ensuring that the party will win the chairperson posts in these two urban local bodies. At both the places, camp politics has picked pace as the parties, particularly the TDP, want to ensure their members are not poached by the others.
In both the municipalities, the margin between the two parties is a couple of seats and at both the places and now the votes of Independents and rebels apart from the ex-officio members will play a crucial role. In Anantapur’s Tadipatri, the bastion of JC Brothers, the TDP won 18 of the 36 seats while the YSRC won 16 seats, including two of them unanimously. In the remaining two seats, one was won by the CPI and the other by an independent (TDP rebel).
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However, the YSRC has two ex-officio votes in the form of Tadipatri MLA Kethireddy Peddareddy and Anantapur MP Talari Rangaiah. With the strength of the two ex-officio votes, the numbers of the two parties will be equal. The TDP has now started efforts to rope in the two remaining members and get the chairperson seat and has reportedly shifted its winning candidates and the two others to camps.
Interestingly, former Tadipatri MLA JC Prabhakar Reddy, who took the seat prestigious and campaigned vigorously, attributed the victory to his ‘Save Tadipatri’ (from YSRC) campaign and not the TDP. “The TDP has a vote bank and voters, but there is every need to change the leaders,’’ he said.
A similar scenario is witnessed in Mydukur of Kadapa. Of the 24 wards, the YSRC won 11 while the TDP in 12 and the remaining one by the JSP. Both the TDP and YSRC have been reportedly trying to get the support of the JSP candidate. If the YSRC gets the support of the JSP ward member, it would easily win the municipal chairperson seat as it has two ex-officio votes of Mydukur MLA S Raghurami Reddy and Kadapa MP YS Avinash Reddy.The winning candidates are being shifted to neighbouring States till the last minute of election for chairperson on March 18.
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Anantapur: The TDP, which has a strong cadre base in Anantapur district, faced its worst debacle in the municipal elections. The party could not secure even a single division out of all the 50 in Anantapur municipal corporation. Similarly, though film star and Hindupur MLA Nandamuri Balakrishna camped and campaigned in the headquarters of his constituency for a week, the party got just 6 seats of the total 38. The YSRC got seven municipalities and two Nagar Panchayats. The TDP emerged victorious only in Tadipatri.