ANANTAPUR: The YSRC is expected to get a victory margin of around 80,000-85,000 votes in the Badvel Assembly byelection held on Saturday. It is expected that the BJP will have to be satisfied with getting back the deposit while the Congress will have to lose even its deposit.
As the Telugu Desam Party was not in the fray, its vote bank reportedly turned out in favour of the BJP, according to election observers.
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy did not campaign in the bypoll and panchayat raj minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy along with local MLAs and leaders of YSRC were given the responsibility of winning the election. Jagan Mohan Reddy wrote to the voters that he would not campaign in view of Covid-19 norms. However, he put a target of 1 lakh majority for YSRC candidate D. Sudha.
Even as the TD candidate was not in the fray after its high command announced that it would follow convention and not contest in a bypoll caused by the death of a sitting member, TD leaders reportedly worked for BJP candidate Suresh in many villages.
The polling agents for the BJP candidate were also from the TD cadres. The YSRC leaders also alleged that about Rs10 crore was given to a senior TD leader from the segment to manage the agents in favour of the BJP that had no strong base in rural areas.
Sources from YSRC revealed that the party candidate could get at least 80,000 majority but not the 1 lakh majority target set by Jagan Mohan Reddy due to poor polling percentage because of heavy rains on the day of polling and also the day before the polling. In the bypoll, polling percentage was 68.12 per cent which was the lowest in the past two decades.
Meanwhile, government whip G. Srikanth Reddy lashed out at the BJP for trying to terrorise the people of Badvel by spreading fake posts and rumours on the day of polling. “The BJP has no cadres and leaders but purchased TD cadres as polling agents in the majority of polling stations,” he said and ruled out possibilities of using bogus voters because people always wanted to bless Jagan Mohan Reddy.
While the YSRC expects more than 80,000 votes of majority, the BJP is likely to get around 30,000 votes and the Congress may lose its deposit, say analysts. About 1,46,657 votes were polled as against the total votes of 2,15,292 votes in Badvel Assembly segment.
