The Telugu Desam Party which won 15 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh in 2014 faces a tough fight with exit polls favouring the YSR Congress party led by Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The Times Now-VMR Exit Poll has predicted 18 of the state’s 25 seats would go to the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) while the India Today-Axis My India exit poll gives YRSRCP 18-20 seats with a vote share of 45 per cent. The INS-CVoter exit poll, on the other hand, projected 14 seats for Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP as compared to 11 seats for the main rival YSR Congress.
Exit polls often get it wrong and the actual results will only be known on Thursday, May 23 when votes are counted.
Andhra Pradesh went for simultaneous polls for 175 assembly seats and 25 Lok Sabha seats in the first phase of elections on April 11 in a do-or-die battle for 69-year-old chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his main opponent YSR Congress party headed by 46-year-old Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.
Naidu has had to encounter twin challenges during the electioneering: first, to bring his party to victory by overcoming the anti-incumbency among the people due to non-fulfilment of many promises and incomplete works on his dream capital Amaravati and major irrigation project Polavaram.
Secondly, he has been fighting a high-voltage battle with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the national level by bringing all the anti-BJP forces together. Throughout the campaign, Naidu has focused on attacking Modi for betraying the state by not fulfilling the promises made in the bifurcation Act. But the YSR Congress has accused him of blaming Modi to cover up his failures in the last five years.
On the other hand, Jagan Reddy fought the elections with a single point agenda of pulling down Naidu from power in the state. He focused on the Naidu government’s failures, rampant corruption among the ruling party, breakdown of law and order as was evident from the attack on his life at Visakhapatnam airport last year. Besides, he also came out with a set of attractive promises to attract all sections of people.
The Congress and BJP have been shunted to the sidelines in the state. The only other party with some impact on the electorate at least in some pockets is the Jana Sena, headed by popular actor Pawan Kalyan, who allied with the Left Parties and the BSP.
The mood in the YSRC is very much upbeat as it is confident of coming to power by crossing the three-figure mark in the 175-member assembly and at least 16-18 Lok Sabha seats.
On the other hand, the TDP leaders have kept their fingers crossed, though Naidu has been putting up a brave front saying the TDP will definitely come to power for a second term, irrespective of what the exit polls and pre-poll surveys say.