YSRC sweeps Eluru Municipal Corporation Polls; counting held on Sunday
VIJAYAWADA: The ruling YSR Congress continued its winning streak by grabbing Eluru municipal corporation with a landslide win on Sunday, while it had got absolute majority in the other municipal corporations across the state by winning power in 12 of them.
The counting for Eluru had been held back due to a court order following the filing of a petition citing "irregularities" in the polling process. The court later allowed the counting.
Main opposition Telugu Desam that had faced humiliating defeat in the Parliament and Assembly elections in 2019 continued with its saga of defeat by losing the local body elections too. YSRC grabbed 47 divisions out of the total 50, getting absolute majority in all of them, while the TD restricted its win to only three divisions.
The high court had intervened in the Eluru polls process following the filing of a petition. Notably, areas under Chodimella, Komadavolu, Venkatapuram, Ponangi, Satrampadu, Tangellamudi and Sanivarapupeta had been merged into Eluru Municipal Corporation.
The petition had alleged irregularities in the voters lists and in the reservation of wards. Following this, the court stopped the elections and directed the poll panel to conduct the polls after correction of the mistakes. The government then went on appeal and then the court allowed for polling to be held, but put restrictions on counting. However, it recently gave the clearance for the counting.
As results streamed in, the YSRC set a new record by having a clean sweep of 12 municipal corporations. Notably, the Congress and TD, when they ruled, never registered such clean sweeps in polls to municipal corporations.
The election was held on March 10 for 12 municipal corporations. Later, the AP high court stopped the counting process. The rest of the 11 municipal corporations had been won by the YSRC.
In 2014, TD won the Eluru municipal corporation by winning 41 divisions and its ally BJP winning one division. Now, the YSRC that faced a humiliating defeat in 2014 has won 47 divisions. The Jana Sena that had claimed to be having good support in Eluru failed to win any division and similar was the case with the BJP and other parties.
Political analysts say the implementation of welfare schemes to all without any bias and payment of money thereof directly into the accounts of the beneficiaries created a good image about chief minister Jagan and his YSRC, and this was reflected in the Eluru municipal corporation results too.
The Jana Sena, which had a good hold in Eluru in the past, failed to make a good mark due to the political tactics adopted by the TD. The BJP and Jana Sena fought the corporation and municipal elections in an alliance format.
During the Eluru municipal corporation election, TD leader Chintamaneni Prabhakar lured local Jana Sena leaders and announced support of the JS to TD candidates, much to the embarrassment of the BJP-JS alliance.
“During the TD term, the Janmabhumi committees belonging to TD did not provide welfare scheme benefits to all eligible people and only to TD supporters. Also, the TD indulged in corruption and other illegal acts,” political analysts noted.
By contrast, the YSRC government is providing welfare scheme benefits without any bias and corruption and without any interference by party leaders. This has increased YSRC’s support among the people.
Deputy chief minister Alla Krishna Srinivas (Nani) said the YSR Congress won a landslide victory in the Eluru Municipal Corporation elections and the massive mandate reflected the endorsement of people's faith in the governance of Chief Minister Jagan.
He said the results of Eluru municipal corporation were delayed due to political conspiracies hatched by TD chief Chandrababu Naidu. “Naidu has been indulging in political conspiracies and TD will have no future if Naidu continues with his cheap tricks,” he said.
The minister attributed the YSRC victory to the “effective delivery of a plethora of welfare schemes under ‘Nava Ratnalu’, the YSRC’s people-first centric approach in governance and the administration’s effective handling of the Covid19 pandemic.
