AP civic poll results reflect YSR Congress' total domination in state; TDP suffers unprecedented setback

In a landslide of unprecedented scale that is now being described as a ‘Jagan Wash’, the ruling YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday swept the elections to the urban local bodies in the state. The party has won all 11 municipal corporations and 73 out of 75 municipalities in which elections were held. The Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) could only win the Tadipatri and Mydukur municipalities. The YSR Congress’ victory assumes even more massive proportions when seen in the context of the fact that it had come a distant second to the TDP in the last urban local body elections. At the time, the TDP had won five out of seven municipal corporations and the YSRC two. Of the 92 municipalities, TDP bagged 70, YSRC 18, Congress and CPI one each and others two. This time, the defeat was of such a magnitude for the TDP that it could reach double digits in terms of seats in only five urban local bodies. The TDP does not have much cause for celebration in the Tadipatri and Mydukur municipalities either, although it emerged victories. Even there, the YSR Congress is likely to win the chairperson’s posts with the help of ex-officio votes, as noted by The Times of India. This will effectively mean that the YSR Congress will control all the civic bodies in the state where elections were held last week. The Congress was nowhere in the picture, while other Opposition parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Jana Sena Party (JSP) could also make very little gains. Endorsement of ’three capitals’ decision? The YSRC attributed the resounding victory to the faith people reposed in the leadership of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. The party said that Reddy is a leader who “lives up to his promises”. The ruling party also claimed the verdict was an endorsement of the government’s decision to have three different capitals for the state. The TDP failed to make a mark in either Vijayawada or Guntur municipal corporations, which form part of the current capital region Amaravati. As many people have been opposing the capital trifurcation plan here, the setbacks to the TDP here are particularly major. It did relatively better in Visakhapatnam, which the government wanted to make the executive capital. Nevertheless, it would be the YSR Congress that will be ruling the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation. The TDP has sought to put up a brave face, with party president N Chandrababu Naidu, in a tweet, telling his party rank and file there was “nothing to be disappointed” in the results. “We fought well despite rowdyism, threats, intimidation, abuse of power and inducements,” he claimed. However, the defeat in the municipal polls is not the first such setback for the party, which once dominated the state’s politics. Last month, the YSR Congress decimated the TDP in the gram panchayat elections held in the state. Candidates backed by the party won 80 percent of the panchayats. In 2013, the YSR Congress had won just 12 out of 93 panchayats, as noted by The New Indian Express. This time, the party-backed candidates defeated the TDP even in the Kuppam Assembly constituency — the bastion of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu. In the 2019 Assembly election as well, the YSR Congress scored a landslide victory, winning 151 seats as against 23 seats won by the TDP. Clearly, therefore, the recent defeat of Chandrababu Naidu’s party in the municipal elections is not a one-off setback, but is part of a trend of declining fortunes for the TDP. With inputs from PTI