Andhra Pradesh MLC elections: Rumours of YSRC win troubling TD cadre
Nellore: Speculation claiming that YSR Congress nominee for the MLC local body seat, Anam Vijayakumar Reddy, was winning the election is causing jitters amongst TD cadres. Every leader from the YSRC has been talking about Vijayakumar’s impending win since the election on Friday and have claimed that there has been large-scale cross-voting from TD in favour of the YSRC candidate.
The scale of the rumours has left a section of TD leaders stunned. These leaders were also expecting a comfortable win. YSR Congress leaders claim there has been cross-voting for their nominee at Atmakur, Udayagiri, Gudur and Nayudupeta. Reminding the TD that YSRC once had the highest number of MPTCs and ZPTCs after local body elections and that many of them had migrated to TD believing the promises made by the ruling party leaders, YSR Congress legislator Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy said all of them had voted for the YSRC because TD had ignored them.
According to party strengths, there are 501 votes for TD and 351 for YSRC and the latter claims that 90 TD votes were polled towards them. Reliable sources within the Telugu Desam said their functionaries had managed to seek the support of some 70-odd YSRC members discreetly during the three days before the election by paying sizeable amounts to the members. The sources said the party was also trying to create rifts within the party by talking about cross-voting.
“But we are still going to win with 150 votes majority and YSRC leaders are only talking about cross voting to create rifts amongst our leaders,” TD district unit president and MLC Beeda Ravichandra said, while striking down the speculations over a TD defeat.
MLC betting is now bigger than cricket:
As the fate of MLC candidates will only be known on Monday when ballots are counted, there is currently huge interest in knowing who is going to win the MLC seat amongst betting enthusiasts. MLC local authority elections at Kadapa and Kurnool provided punters with an immense opportunity. And the stakes are very high — sometimes crossing lakhs in some bets tendered by enthusiasts in Kadapa.
Congress Party senior leader N. Tulasi Reddy said betting in Kadapa has crossed all expectations, even rivaling cricket betting. And interestingly, the betting is being done by MPTCs and ZPTCs who themselves are voters in the elctions. The parameters for betting taken by wagers include number of people in the camps, intelligence reports, possibility of cross-voting, and the inputs being given by the candidates themselves.
“I have never seen such a huge interest in betting on the winning chances of MLC candidates,” said one of the punters. According to a punter who did not want to reveal his name, B.Tech Ravi, a candidate put up by ruling TDP is leading the pack of probable winners. The amount of money being bet on his winnability has been steadily growing since Saturday morning, the punter said.
Ravi’s main rival, Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy, was also a favourite. N. Tulasi Reddy, while explaining the modus operandi of betting gangs in Kadapa, said that a very interesting feature of this year is that majority of YSRCP territorial representatives who had crossed over to TDP were being held captive in camps. There is a hope among YSRCP leadership that there may be cross-voting, meaning that YSRCP votes are intact despite the fact they were physically present in TDP camp.
“Such a possibility (YSRCP cross-voting from TDP camp) is remote,” he said. He added that people in camps were staying with them ‘on oath’. TDP Kadapa District President Sreenivas Reddy said he was not aware of such incidents in the district. In Kurnool district too, betting gangs were accepting bets in the regions of Nandyal, Nandikotkur, Adoni, Mantralayam and Kurnool town.
