Local bodies' elections trounce the TDP ‘over confidence trans’

- D. Vishnumohan Rao

The results of the recently concluded elections to the Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies of the state trounced the estimates, hopes and predictions of the ruling Telugu Desam Party.

The TDP president and CM of AP Mr. Nara Chandrababu Naidu repeatedly ‘predicted’ that the MPTC and ZPTC elections would be the last one for Congress in the state. It seemed to go wrongly from the very bottom. It also looked like the ruling party is gradually losing the ‘gained’ ground in the voters. The voters who crowned Telugu Desam with a bumper majority in the 1999 Parliament and Assembly elections had turned their back to the party on various reasons.

A special mention is to be made towards the rural voters. The opposition parties were given almost the same credit as that of ruling party. Doubts rise whether the ruling party dropped its credibility or is that opposition parties augmented their standards. Anyway, the net result is that the voters left the excessive projection of opposition parties as the most harmful by the ruling party president to dumps.

The Chief Minister was very much self-assured about the public support to his party. He mentioned repeatedly that the free power supply statements and Telangana separatist movement would not be considered by the people of the state and the concerned region.

Moreover, the ‘commitment’ in Naidu’s statements to stake his life for people at large and making the dream of Swarna Andhra Pradesh into a reality were not believed by the people, which was evident with the local bodies election results. Three months before the elections the ruling party started with its poll exercise that went in vain.

The main Opposition in the state Legislature, Congress, which was way behind the ‘power’ (in terms of official, money and muscle power) compared to the ruling party could make an impressive performance clinching many MPTC and ZPTC positions. The leaders of the APCC and the CLP themselves were astonished and overwhelmed with joy for the result. That itself was evident about their potential about their party and party men.

The ‘Hi-Tec’ strategies of the information technology ‘superman’ did not come to the rescue in these elections.

Strong impact of power charges hike

The hike in the power charges had shown a strong impact on the voters of the state, especially on the farming community. Harvest came down with drought during one season and floods in the other. The other factor that added to the plight of the ryots was the negligence of state and central organisations in procuring the food grains, to the extent of reap, from the farmers and lack of availability of minimum support price.

The promises of continuous supply of power for nine hours a day by the government fused-off. Hardly power was made available for four hours in a day. For want of power, borewell based farming went haywire in the wind. Many families of ryots resorted to suicides unable to bear the brunt of financial crisis and humiliation.

The situation went even worse with the dumb attitude of the state government instead of extending a helping hand to the ryots and their families. There were several occasions after the elections where even the top leaders of the ruling party exhibited their dissatisfaction over the power hike issue. May be it looks as if those feeders to the society waited to the right opportunity and expressed their anguish voting against the ruling party?

Paddy procurement parities poked through vote bank

During the previous cropping year, there were sufficient rains and availability of water for irrigation. The ruling party attempted unsuccessfully to make minimum support price available to the agricultural produce. The discrepancies that piled during the paddy procurement by the public sector bodies also added fuel to the farmers’ indignation.

The government could pacify with its statement to come to the rescue of farmers. However, in fact the tables turned over with the actions of Food Corporation of India. FCI adopted a diverse rate card for procuring super fine, ordinary qualities and wet paddy varieties. In addition to this, FCI at one stage stalled the procurement process showing a red herring that it is not with sufficient stocking provision beyond that point.

Here was the point where all the assurances of the state government dried out.

‘Sealed Cover’ approach in candidates selection lead to dissidence

The leadership of the Telugu Desam headed by Mr Chandrababu Naidu as president employed the Sealed Cover selection of candidates to the MPTC and ZPTC contest. This was in practice in Congress since quite some time. With the sealed cover system, Congress leaders were habituated to select ‘weak and influenced’ persons as contestants sidetracking the real party workers and strong contenders.

Now, Naidu took model of the scheme and declared the candidates selected for elections in three segments from the party’s headquarters itself. Obviously, as good in the Congress dissatisfaction and dissidence took roots in Telugu Desam too. There was criticism in the party circles that despite Naidu’s success in selecting candidates for the Assembly elections, he could not come out in colours for local bodies.

The recommendations of the district party leaders in Telangana and Coastal Andhra regions only resulted for the drop in success rate of the party.

Influence of three-month baby TRS in Telangana

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) floated by the former deputy speaker K Chandra Sekhar Rao three months prior to the elections raising the banner of separate statehood to Telangana also registered an impressive share in these elections. TDP was almost cleanly swept in Nizamabad and Karimnagar. In four or five more districts, TDP votes were crossed over to Congress with the assistance of TRS.

Congress would bag the ZP chairman thrones with the help of TRS in Ranga Reddy, Nalgonda, Khammam and Medak districts along with the Lefts. The ruling party leaders had repeated discussions over the influence of TRS and its influence on results.

Inability to communicate on achievements

TDP supremo and CM Chandrababu Naidu admitted in a press conference after the elections that the party was unsuccessful in taking the achievements to the people. The development and progress during the past five years in Telugu Desam regime compared to the previous Congress rule should be openly admitted. The development rate reached new heights with the achievements of the state government through its welfare and innovate schemes implementation for the past five years.

Though the criticism on borrowings from World Bank and other international funding agencies stands as a reality in its place, scope for development both socially and economically grew with those investments in the state. The applause showering on the accomplishments of Andhra Pradesh with the introduction of ‘Hi-Tec’ policies and strategies of Naidu are also to be recalled repeatedly. Telugu Desam suffered a set back as it could not successfully explain the people about the advancement it had substantially made during its regime.

The time has come for the Telugu Tammullu for a thorough introspection on the failures to over come during the times to come.

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