Date:31/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/31/stories/2008053152030300.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Parties’ claims put to test

S. Harpal Singh

Telangana sentiment absent

ADILABAD: The absence of the much-talked-about Telangana sentiment in Adilabad district raised curiosity among the observers about the outcome of Thursday’s by-election to Adilabad Lok Sabha constituency.

Whatever may be the result, it will sure lay bare the strengths of the sentiment as also the oft-claimed vote banks of the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party.

Mudhole Assembly segment is likely to hold key to the success of either the Telangana Rashtra Samithi or the Congress candidates, akin to 2004 elections. Madhusudhan Reddy of the TRS had polled over 80,000 votes in this Assembly segment as the alliance candidate and also secured the winning lead of 40,000 votes then. Venugopalachary of the TDP, on the other hand, had secured over 40,000 votes here.

Calculations

Will a major shift in the number of these votes deal a telling blow on the chances of the TRS candidate? “No,” asserts Mr. Madhusudhan Reddy, convinced of his victory. “We may lose about 10,000 votes each in Mudhole and Nirmal constituencies, but we are gaining in other segments. The sentiment vote being quite silent this time, even political pundits are unable to gauge its depth,” he says.

The Congress candidate A. Indrakaran Reddy hopes to get a lead of over 20,000 in this constituency. “Our votes are coming back to us,” he observed. He is also hopeful of getting similar or slightly lesser leads in the other six segments, making the election one sided.

Mr. Venugopalachary hopes to secure a majority in Adilabad, Boath, Asifabad and Khanapur Assembly constituencies. However, he is not talking any numbers.

While the TRS and the Congress candidates are sure of their own victory by a margin of over one lakh votes, the TDP contestant feels he will scrape through.

The TDP candidate had secured a majority of over 12,000 votes over Mr. Madhusudhan Reddy in Khanapur (ST) and Asifabad (SC) Assembly segments in the last general elections. It will be interesting to watch if he can continue the same in these segments now.