VIJAYAWADA: The campaign for the urban local body elections in Krishna and NTR districts came to an end on Friday evening, with eight local bodies set to go to polls on November 1.
As many as 11.64 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in these elections, covering the Vijayawada and Machilipatnam Municipal Corporations and the municipalities of Tiruvuru, Kondapalli, Nandigama, Jaggayyapeta, Pedana and Vuyyuru.
The campaign largely passed off peacefully, without major political confrontations or incidents, as the ruling TDP-JSP-BJP-led NDA put up a coordinated campaign across the eight urban local bodies. Though there were differences, among the TDP and JSP cadre, the NDA leadership moved quickly to contain them.
The TDP leadership also initiated action against leaders and workers who crossed the party line, helping maintain discipline within the NDA.
The NDA appeared to have an edge in campaign intensity, with Ministers, MPs, MLAs, party observers and election teams working simultaneously across the municipalities and corporations.
The campaign also witnessed the participation of several prominent leaders and party functionaries from outside the respective local bodies. A key feature of the NDA campaign was its extensive door-to-door outreach.
Alliance leaders and cadre made a concerted effort to consolidate their traditional vote bases while also reaching out to undecided voters and highlighting the performance of the NDA government. In contrast, the YSRCP, which is contesting the elections without an alliance, had the advantage of deciding its candidates and contesting all available seats without having to accommodate coalition partners.
This also helped the party avoid potential differences over seat sharing, competing claims from alliance partners and dissidence arising from ticket allocation.
With no need to negotiate seat adjustments, the party had greater flexibility in selecting candidates based on local political equations and organisational strength.
However, according to political analysts, the party appeared relatively subdued in terms of campaign intensity and visible mobilisation compared with the NDA. The contrast was evident in the participation of senior leaders, election teams and the overall scale of campaign activity across the eight urban local bodies.
However, campaign intensity alone may not determine the final outcome. With voting now only days away, candidate credibility, local issues, ward-level equations, manifestos, promises, performance of the respective governments and the personal equations of candidates with voters are likely to play a crucial role.
Local body polls can produce results that differ from broader political trends, as voters often give considerable importance to neighbourhood-level issues and individual candidates.
