Hyderabad: The poll trends in Friday’s Telangana state Assembly elections created tremors among the candidates of both the TRS and the Congress-led People’s Front. All exit polls are in favour of the TRS.
Compared to the previous Assembly elections, the poll percentage went up on Friday. In 2014, the poll percentage in Telangana state stood at 69.5, which went up to 73 this time.
The figure may be revised upwards by the Election Commission. The general theory in any election is that a low poll percentage is advantageous to the ruling party and the advantage shifts to the main Opposition party if more voters turn up at the polling booths.
The overall state poll percentage and the percentage of voting in the individual constituencies make a difference to the final outcome. In 2014, as against the state poll percentage of 69.5, 25 Assembly constituencies recorded 80 and above voting.
The results in these constituencies were mixed. In a close fight between two parties, the margin of victory is low. In rural areas, the poll percentage is generally more compared to urban areas in the state. This may affect parties. Out of the 119 seats in the state, 50 are in urban areas and the rural voter, with about 20 more seats, is likely decide the fate of the TRS and the Opposition People’s Front.
While this is so, the urban population is more than the rural population in the state. The national average of rural population is 70 per cent against 61 per cent in Telangana state. The rural population is 39 per cent in the Telangana state against the national average of 30 per cent. The voter turnout is more in rural areas than in urban areas.
The TRS argument is that in rural areas, polling was in favour of their party. Rural voters were attracted by several welfare schemes, said a TRS leader.
But the argument of the Congress is that the implementation of the schemes had left the rural voters divided.
A senior Congress leader told this newspaper that the Rythu Bandhu scheme may attract some farmers to vote in favour of the TRS, but why would tenant farmers who number about 30 per cent in every village vote in favour of the TRS when they were not getting any benefit from the scheme.
