Tirupati: Political parties busy assessing the poll percentages

Tirupati: As the crucial polling process was completed, political parties and contesting candidates have started assessing voter judgement, which is recorded in EVMs and only to be known on June 4. The official poll percentages have become a base for various assessments of the contesting candidates.

Tirupati district recorded 78.63 per cent of polling while Chittoor district accounted for 87.09 per cent. It was generally believed that huge turnouts of people to cast their votes is an indication of a large-scale anti-incumbency and it will help Opposition parties. Going by this theory, Opposition TDP-JSP-BJP alliance has been expressing their confidence strongly that they will sweep the elections in the erstwhile Chittoor district. Former Chittoor district has 14 Assembly constituencies, out of which TDP could win only Kuppam in 2019 where its supremo N Chandrababu Naidu emerged victorious by a margin of over 30,000 votes. This time around, TDP was confident of reversing the situation completely seeing the complete wave in its favour.

Till the time of polling they were saying that the alliance may win at least 7-8 seats giving tough fights in another 2-3 constituencies. Now, they were of the view that it may win around 12 seats for sure as people have voted with vengeance against the ruling party. Significantly, Kuppam constituency from where Chandrababu Naidu contested for eighth consecutive time recorded almost 90 per cent polling (89.88 to be exact). YSRCP has campaigned vigorously in the constituency over the last five years and time and again said that they will defeat Naidu for sure. In contrast, TDP has worked with the target of securing one lakh majority for Naidu. The massive turnout of the voters was an indication of their affection towards Naidu, felt a leader in Kuppam.

All the seven assembly segments in new Chittoor district limits have crossed 80 per cent poll percentages with Chittoor being the lowest with 81.24 per cent.

On the other hand, ruling party leaders were saying that they fared well in the elections and the massive turnout was the response from people, who were benefited by the government’s welfare initiatives during the last five years. They have been citing that a large number of women and senior citizens have come for voting as the government did much to these sections.

However, it was widely believed that the ruling party candidates in several constituencies were in a defensive mode particularly after the polling, which they did not expect at all. The fact that final outcome of results may disappoint many candidates on both sides is causing worry to them.