Visakhapatnam: Curiosity rises among voters with each passing day

Visakhapatnam: Whether it’s over phone or in person or through social media platforms, the one question that tops the list among people while conversing with one another is ‘which party has a larger scope to win in Andhra Pradesh?’

Even as the YSRCP and BJP-TDP-JSP alliance are exuding confidence that they would emerge victorious in 2024 polls, curiosity among people over poll results continues to linger.

As the vote counting exercise slated on June 4, people of Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring States could hardly contain the suspense any longer.

Even as a week passes after the poll exercise in AP, there is no clarity yet as to which party would form the government next despite several media houses and institutions releasing the exit poll data. Some of the fake data circulated on social media platforms adds to the confusion.

Sharing his experience, B S Rao, a businessman based in the city, says, “On a daily basis, I would receive not less than a dozen calls from my friends and relatives settled elsewhere. AP politics would be our main topic to debate over followed by the million dollar question--who would win this time?”

While the alliance parties are quite confident that they would form the government, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy stepped way further sharing his prediction that he is certain to break the YSRCP’s previous record of winning 151 Assembly seats and 22 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 and the results would not just create history but also draw the attention of the entire country.

Given the incidents of post-poll violence flaring up in parts of Andhra Pradesh, they did prompt the opposition parties to point out at the ruling party that the defeat was quite apparent for the YSRCP and hence the party leaders were indulging in such activities as they could hardly control their frustration.

Along with Andhra Pradesh, people from neighbouring States are eagerly waiting for the results of the general elections. In addition, the NRIs are keeping tabs on the emerging AP political scenario as well.

Although the higher voter turnout has been viewed as an indicator of anti-incumbency by the opposition in Andhra Pradesh, the ruling party, however, maintains that it is the reflection of the support it garnered from the umpteen scheme beneficiaries.

Apart from indulging in prolonged debates over who would win Assembly constituency-wise, district-wise and region-wise, the simmering curiosity also has pushed betting operations way up in several districts. As if they were not enough, fake poll surveys circulated on social media platforms add to the confusion as many forward them to their friends to get the data confirmed.

With the vote counting exercise scheduled on June 4, curiosity among people continues to heighten and the situation is likely to continue for an extended period until the results are out.