Hyderabad: The Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh are of more interest than the Lok Sabha elections held in both Telugu states, as the former will determine whether there is a change of guard in the state government.
Everyone is waiting eagerly for May 23 to know whether AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will retain power or YSR Congress president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s long standing wish of becoming Chief Minister will at last be fulfilled.
Voters in AP showed much more interest in casting their votes than voters in Telangana. The poll percentage shows this. The poll percentage in Telangana was 60.57 per cent (it may change by one or two per cent after getting the final figures from all polling centres), while in AP the total poll percentage is likely to reach a high of 80 per cent.
There were long queues outside polling centres in AP an hour before the start of polling, and voters participated vigorously. In Telangana State, voters are fed up with a series of elections: the assembly elections in December 2018, panchayat elections a month later, and now Lok Sabha elections.
Another reason for voters being less engaged in Telangana is because there is no strong opposition to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
MLAs did not take much interest in campaigning as these elections do not affect them. In the assembly elections the total poll percentage had crossed 70 per cent, while in the current Lok Sabha elections it was just 60.57 per cent. There were 17 lakh more voters in the current Lok Sabha elections than in the assembly elections.
In AP, the Telugu Desam and YSR Congress are equally strong. While the Telugu Desam is fighting to retain power, the YSR Congress is fighting to capture power. In this process both parties have competed with each other in bringing voters to the polling booths and that has led to a record poll percentage. By 3 pm the poll percentage in AP was 55 per cent; in Telangana state it was 49 per cent. In the last two hours of voting, in Telangana only 11 per cent more votes were added whereas in AP in the last three hours polling was up by 25 per cent.
In Telangana, polling ended at 5 pm and in AP at 6 pm. In both states the highest polling was recorded in constituencies where both parties had strong candidates. The simultaneous polls to assembly and Lok Sabha were also one of the reasons for the highest polling percentage in AP.
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