Why the TDP fared badly in AP polls

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: “Karnudi chaavuku kaaranalu anekam.” Thus goes a saying in Telugu which means the reasons for Karna’s death are one too many.
Likewise, there are many reasons for the Telugu Desam Party’s debacle in Elections-2009 in Andhra Pradesh.
First and foremost, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu obviously failed to regain confidence of the people. He promised heaven to the people but could not convince them that he would indeed deliver it, given his previous record wherein he withdrew “populist” schemes like rice at Rs 2-a-kg and liquor prohibition. His schemes like monthly cash transfer and free colour televisions have attracted people but have not converted into votes.
The TDP’s flip-flop stance on Telangana has also cost it dearly, what with people of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions not taking kindly to the pro-separatist leaning.
It managed only 36 seats out of 123 in the coastal Andhra region and just 16 out of 52 in Rayalaseema. The pro-Telangana stance did not pay dividends in that region either with the TDP bagging just 38 out of 119 seats, despite allying with the separatist Telangana Rashtra Samiti. The ruling Congress came up trumps in all the three regions, thereby comprehensively trouncing the principal opposition party.
The TDP also harped heavily on corruption issue with Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy as the focal point. This factor was effectively negated by the individual benefit schemes that the Congress government has been implementing and did not pay dividends to the TDP in the end.
The nine-month-old Praja Rajyam Party has for sure dent the prospects of the TDP, mostly in the coastal Andhra region but a political minnow like the Lok Satta Party of former bureaucrat N Jayaprakash Narayan too has done the 27-year-old party in. The Lok Satta Party effect was largely felt in the urban areas where the TDP could have easily managed at least 20-25 seats more. Take for example the newly-created Vijayawada East Assembly segment. Here the PRP candidate won the seat by a meager margin of 190 votes but the Lok Satta Party candidate, a former TDP leader, managed to secure about 8,000 votes. This spoiled the chances of TDP nominee here.
Same was the case in many constituencies in Greater Hyderabad. The Secunderabad seat too would have fallen in the TDP’s kitty but for the Lok Satta Party which eat away over 9200 votes.
Union minister S Jaipal Reddy almost faced defeat in the newly-created Chevella Lok Sabha constituency at the hands of TDP’s Jitender Reddy. Here again the Lok Satta Party played spoilsport by splitting votes in Assembly segments like Serlingampally. Even in Parigi Assembly segment, an independent candidate polled over 30,000 for Lok Sabha, hitting the prospects of TDP.
The alliance with Left parties did not in any way benefit the TDP either, unlike the Congress which reaped a rich harvest in 2004.
TDP spokesperson and member of Legislative Council Nannapaneni Rajakumari admitted that Lok Satta had eaten into their votes at many places. “Besides, our alliance with TRS proved counter-productive. It is time for us to do a re-think on Telangana,” she observed.
All these issues will come up for elaborate discussion during the two-day annual conference of TDP beginning here on May 27. What lessons the TDP learns and what course it takes based on them will be eagerly watched.