TRS, TDP prove their grip on rural voters in Andhra Pradesh

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) have demonstrated their grip on rural voters in the local body elections.

The TRS, pushed to second position in the urban local body elections in the Telangana region, has succeeded in retaining its position intact with the rural voter.

The TDP continued its winning spree in Seemandhra, leading over its key rival the YSR Congress (YSRC) while the position of Congress has gone from bad to worse.

According to the State Election Commission, in the counting of ballots on Tuesday, the TRS had won 191 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) seats out of 443 in Telangana, Congress 176 and TDP 53. TRS garnered the Adilabad, Nizamabad and Karimnagar Zilla Parishats. The Congress won Nalgonda, Ranga Reddy and Mahbubnagar ZPs.

The Congress surpassed TRS in the Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency (MPTC) seats by winning 2551 out of 6525 MPTC seats that were counted, pushing TRS to second position with 1860 seats, TDP 1061 seats,  BJP 275 and 522 seats going to independents.

The TRS struggled to win 8 municipalities on Monday, while Congress won 21 and the TDP 3 indicating lack of a cadre base at urban centers unlike the Congress and, to an extent, TDP.

Out of the three municipal corporations that went for polls in March, TRS could win only Karimnagar, while Congress won the Ramagundam and Nizamabad Corporations.

In Seemandhra, TDP captured nine Zilla Parishats out of 13 and YSRC has to be satisfied with four i.e. Prakasam, Kadapa, Nellore and Kurnool. YSRC wave was evident only in Kadapa while TDP was spread over almost all the rest of the residual state of AP.

Of the 653 ZPTC seats in Seemandhra, TDP got 373, YSRC 275 and Congress could manage only two. Similarly, TDP won 5216 MPTC seats, YSRC 4199, Congress 172 and CPM (in alliance with YSRC) won 24 MPTC seats.

In the municipal corporation elections, the TDP which could not win a single seat in Seemandhra in 2006 this time registered impressive victories by securing the majority in Rajahmundry, Eluru, Vijayawada, Nellore, Chittoor and Anantapur, whereas YSRC could win only Kadapa corporation, in YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s native district.

In municipalities, TDP won 1436 wards, YSRC 934 and Congress 53 wards.

In spite of the results of the local body elections, both the Congress and the YSR Congress are confident of forming a government in Telangana and AP, respectively, when the results of the general elections unfold on Friday.