Tirupati: TDP reviews civic poll debacle

Tirupati: The city coordination committee of TDP met here on Tuesday to review the reasons for the party's defeat in the recent civic polls.

Former MLA M Sugunamma, Tirupati Parliamentary constituency president G Narasimha Yadav and convenor M Devanarayana Reddy among others participated in the meeting.

As there was a widespread opinion within the party over the lack of teamwork in carrying out the campaign, they discussed at length the lapses which caused huge debacle in the corporation polls.

The party candidates were defeated in 26 divisions out of 27 for which elections were held giving the TDP only one seat. Needless to say that the YSRCP candidates also won unanimously in 22 divisions while election for one seat is kept pending following the SEC directions.

Sugunamma felt that despite fielding those candidates who were in the service of the people on behalf of the party as against YSRCP candidates, the party had to face a huge defeat. She attributed the victory of the ruling party to the highhandedness of the leaders coupled with the official power.

She wondered how the ruling party candidates have won the elections as YSRCP has not taken up any development activities in the city in the last two years. She called upon all the defeated candidates to focus on people's problems in their respective divisions and fight for resolving them.

Narasimha Yadav said that the elections were held undemocratically in which ruling party candidates have managed to win. He underlined the need to fight unitedly in future to regain the party's strength in the Lok Sabha elections.

The party leaders have felicitated the only corporator from the party RC Muni Krishna who assured them that he will echo the party's voice in the corporation. The party leaders also condemned the serving of notices by CID to TDP Supremo N Chandrababu Naidu regarding assigned lands in Amaravati. Later, they protested at Ambedkar statue and raised slogans against the government.

Former Minister Parasa Rathnam, party leaders D Bhaskar Yadav, S Sudhakar Reddy, Pushpavathi, Santhamma, Hemanth Royal and others participated in the meeting and protest.