Hyderabad: The Congress, struggling to retain some semblance of power in Andhra Pradesh, has brought in the heavy guns. AICC president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi and other AICC leaders are concentrating on the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and Lok Sabha elections and campaigning hard.
Mr Gandhi will address a public meeting at Hindupur in Anantapur district on Wednesday. Actor-turned-politician Nandamuri Balakrishna is the TD’s strong contender for the Hindupur Assembly seat.
Mrs Sonia Gandhi will address a public meeting in Guntur on May 2. AICC heavyweights Mr Jairam Ramesh, Mr Digvijay Singh, and Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad are also expected to campaign in Andhra Pradesh.
While it may not win a good number of seats in Andhra Pradesh, the party hopes to get a good percentage of votes. Although the APCC got more than 1,000 applications for Assembly tickets, there were few really strong candidates. Many senior leaders chose not to contest, knowing that the party will do badly after it conceded to the demand for dividing the state. In many Assembly constituencies, the APCC leadership is dependent on second rung leaders. Even in the home constituency of PCC president Mr N. Raghuveera Reddy, Kalyandurg in Anantapur district, the Congress candidate withdrew his nomination on the last day for withdrawal of nominations. The party cannot field another candidate as nominations were closed by that time.
A similar thing happened in Narsipatnam Assembly constituency in Visakhapatnam district.
In the 2009 general election, the Congress had won 156 seats in the state and more than 100 seats in the Seemandhra region. The change in the party’s electoral fortunes could not be more startling.
More than half the Congress MLAs have left the party and several others have not contested. One APCC leader said that if the Congress wins in double digits in Andhra Pradesh it will be a great achievement.
In Andhra Pradesh, the main contenders are the YSR Congress Party and the Telugu Desam Party. This is the first time the YSRCP is contesting a general election. The TDP has been defeated twice in a row and is
determined to come to power this time.
The Congress is hoping to do well enough to continue to exist. It calculates that by the next general election, it should be in a position to challenge the ruling party.
Should the YSRCP win as expected, the TDP will not be able to continue as a political force till the next election. It is very difficult for a regional party to survive when it is out of power for 15 years continuously.
However, if the TDP wins, the YSRCP may become like the Praja Rajyam party, too weak to exist on its own.
