AP Assembly Elections - YSRCP Wins 150+ Seats, Kills TDP

Y S Jaganmohan Reddy's YSR Congress Party appears all set to bag 150+ of the 175 seats (as per trends - the official results are not yet out) in the Assembly elections, which is way more than expected by anyone including perhaps by the party itself.

It is also set to win 23 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats of the State.

In the process, the party decimated the ruling TDP, as also new contender Jana Sena (the BJP was written off in AP anyway).

TDP president Chandrababu Naidu and other leaders of the party had made fun of Jagan's padayatra many times, accusing him of running away from the Legislature and raising non-issues. They also tried to project Jagan as a criminal who was facing multiple court and CBI cases, and also accused him of having a secret pact with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to see that he (Jagan) was absolved of the cases being faced by him. The TDP, the Congress, the BJP and the Jana Sena repeatedly tried to make the people believe that Jagan was not interested in the State and its people but only in protecting his wealth and getting out of the criminal cases against him.

Jagan, on the other hand, continuously and consistently championed the cause of Special Category Status to the State. Naidu was soon seen as someone shifting stances - he had actually written to the Centre accepting a "special package" for the State and publicly said that there was no need for SCS, but after four years of that, last year took a U-turn due to pressure from Jagan's campaign for SCS and started waging a battle against the Prime Minister and the Centre. The people may have believed that Jagan was consistent in his stand on SCS and would continue the fight against the Centre if elected to power.

Naidu was also perhaps seen as ignoring the people for four years and focusing only on Amaravathi, and announcing schemes like Pasupu Kumkuma only on the eve of elections. Also, Amaravathi is still mostly only on paper - though the Centre has given funds, not a single permanent structure has been built.

Many people say that the land acquisition by the AP government for setting up of the new capital was also a major cause for the defeat of the TDP in the present elections. Many ryots of not only Krishna and Guntur districts who were actually affected but also from other districts entertained a view that the TDP chief had caused irreparable loss to the farming community by acquiring huge tracts of agriculture lands on which three, four crops were being grown earlier each year.

The delay in providing the assured assistance to the people hit by natural calamities, even after getting funds from the Centre, may also also turned the people against the TDP.