VIJAYAWADA: Reiterating his gratitude to the people for giving an overwhelming mandate favouring YSRC in every election, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said the results of the polls to the Zilla and Mandal Parishad Constituencies have increased his responsibilities manifold. Taking a dig at his political rivals, the Chief Minister said vested interests were distorting the poll verdict. He also blamed the Opposition for creating legal hurdles that deferred the polls, which were to be held in 2020.
If the elections were conducted as scheduled, Jagan said, all elected bodies would have been active during the Covid-19 pandemic. The YSRC, meanwhile, extended its tally in the ZPTC polls to 515 seats when the counting was completed late on Sunday. The TDP fell four short of the double-figure mark. The ruling party won 5,998 of the 7,219 MPTC seats that had gone to the poll, leaving its main rival, TDP, at a distant second with 826 seats. In a video message, the Chief Minister attributed the landslide victory to the “grace of God and people’s blessings”. In the Panchayat elections, YSRCP had bagged 81 per cent votes, winning 10,536 of the total 13031 panchayats.
Similarly in the Municipal polls, the party secured 99 per cent votes and in the recent ZPTC and MPTC elections, YSRCP won 98 per cent and 86 per cent, respectively, by securing 8,249 out of the 9,583 MPTCs with 86 per cent. Of the 638 ZPTCs, YSRC won 628, recording a vote share of 98 per cent. The poll results were unanimous in 126 ZPTCs and 2,371 MPTCs. Jagan said he was indebted to the people who stood by the government and assured to work hard for their welfare. “Over 95 per cent of the promises in the election manifesto have been implemented,” he claimed, and added that the YSRC formed the government by winning 151 out of the 175 Assembly constituencies, which is 86 per cent, and 22 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats (88 per cent) in the 2019 elections.
Conspiracy by Oppn to destabilise the government
Coming down hard on the Opposition, he said that TDP leaders and its friendly media have been conspiring to destabilise the government and were unable to accept their defeat in the local body elections. All the elections were held on party symbols by issuing A and B forms to contesting candidates and there was nothing like Opposition boycotting the elections, he said. The Opposition acted irresponsibly by postponing the polls and counting, by approaching courts and creating hurdles to good governance.