The national General Secretary of the TDP Nara Lokesh today mocked the victory of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) candidates in the state's ongoing Panchayat elections.
Speaking to the media, he alleged that the leaders of the ruling party were winning in the elections through "threats and coerced unanimous elections", and wondered if any of their wins were "real" and "democratic" or not.
The TDP leader claimed that his party had previously won elections in the constituencies of the most prominent ruling party leaders, and that this revealed TDP's enduring popularity in the state.
He also said that all the workers of the TDP, right from an "ordinary cadre" to the state general secretary, had been working hard for the victory of the party instead of finding ways to force elections wins, and dared the ruling party to face the third and the fourth phases of the elections without using threats.
"If the people of the state really do support the ruling party, as it claims they do, let it prove so by contesting the third and fourth phases of the Panchayat elections without resorting to the use of threats and other coercive methods," Lokesh said.
His comments follow the YSRCP's clean sweep in the recently concluded second phase of the elections. The ruling party also
emerged victorious in the first phase some days ago.