One of the big losers on counting day was Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy and his YSR Congress, which was defeated by the Telugu Desam Party-Bharatiya Janata Party Alliance in elections in the Seemandhra region. While the elections were predicted to be a neck and neck battle between the two sides, in the end the TDP managed to win over 100 of the 175 assembly seats. In the parliamentary elections, the YSR Congress had won three of the state's 25 seats by 6 AM and was leading in six.
The YSR Congress barely touched the 60-seat mark in the assembly and its defeat puts serious question marks over Jagan's future. In 2012, he was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on charges of corruption and spent over a year in jail. He was counting on a political victory to smooth over his legal troubles. Adding insult to injury, his mother YS Vijayamma lost in the Visakapatnam parliamentary constituency to the BJP candidate K Hari Babu.
While Jagan was considered a frontrunner in Seemandhra till a few months ago, the TDP seems to have proved that party organisation is a crucial factor in winning elections. While the TDP has had a long history and party chief Chandrababu Naidu himself was chief minister of Andhra Pradesh between 1995 and 2004, morale was hurt after the party was defeated by the Congress in two consecutive elections 2004 and 2009. Despite this, Naidu has held the party together over the last decade.
"In the end, the alliance with the BJP gave the party a morale boost and edge in urban areas," said TDP leader Ramesh Naidu. But a senior leader on condition of anonymity told Scroll.in, "If you take vote shares, the fight was close and the caste equations of the TDP seems to have won the day."
Naidu now has a daunting task ahead of him. First, he will need to finalise on a new capital for the Seemandhra region. Given the TDP's predominance in South Coastal Andhra, the city of Vijayawada is considered a strong possibility. TDP leaders hope the party's alliance with Modi may help in working of Centre-state relations and are pushing for greater assistance from New Delhi as the new state is formed.
"A clear and stable government in Delhi and Seemandhra has boosted our confidence and development prospects," said SA Babu, an information technology professional. Politically, though, the focus will be on how Naidu deals with Jagan Reddy and whether the YSR Congress chief can hold on to his flock.
In many ways, Naidu's long experience in politics seems have helped him outsmart a young Jagan Reddy, who was hoping to win sympathy after his father's sudden death in a helicopter crash in 2009. Ironically, Jagan's father was the man who unseated Naidu and sent him into political oblivion in 2004. The TDP chief may finally have won his revenge over the Reddys.
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The YSR Congress barely touched the 60-seat mark in the assembly and its defeat puts serious question marks over Jagan's future. In 2012, he was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on charges of corruption and spent over a year in jail. He was counting on a political victory to smooth over his legal troubles. Adding insult to injury, his mother YS Vijayamma lost in the Visakapatnam parliamentary constituency to the BJP candidate K Hari Babu.
While Jagan was considered a frontrunner in Seemandhra till a few months ago, the TDP seems to have proved that party organisation is a crucial factor in winning elections. While the TDP has had a long history and party chief Chandrababu Naidu himself was chief minister of Andhra Pradesh between 1995 and 2004, morale was hurt after the party was defeated by the Congress in two consecutive elections 2004 and 2009. Despite this, Naidu has held the party together over the last decade.
"In the end, the alliance with the BJP gave the party a morale boost and edge in urban areas," said TDP leader Ramesh Naidu. But a senior leader on condition of anonymity told Scroll.in, "If you take vote shares, the fight was close and the caste equations of the TDP seems to have won the day."
Naidu now has a daunting task ahead of him. First, he will need to finalise on a new capital for the Seemandhra region. Given the TDP's predominance in South Coastal Andhra, the city of Vijayawada is considered a strong possibility. TDP leaders hope the party's alliance with Modi may help in working of Centre-state relations and are pushing for greater assistance from New Delhi as the new state is formed.
"A clear and stable government in Delhi and Seemandhra has boosted our confidence and development prospects," said SA Babu, an information technology professional. Politically, though, the focus will be on how Naidu deals with Jagan Reddy and whether the YSR Congress chief can hold on to his flock.
In many ways, Naidu's long experience in politics seems have helped him outsmart a young Jagan Reddy, who was hoping to win sympathy after his father's sudden death in a helicopter crash in 2009. Ironically, Jagan's father was the man who unseated Naidu and sent him into political oblivion in 2004. The TDP chief may finally have won his revenge over the Reddys.
