ANANTAPUR: The campaign by filmstar Nandamuri Balakrishna for the Telugu Desam could not make any impact on Hindupur municipality in the ULB polls this time.
The YSRC won 29 municipal wards while the TD got only six in the present polls while the BJP, the MIN and an independent won one each municipal ward in Hindupur, a special grade municipality.
Though Balakrishna campaigned for more than a week in Hindupur, he failed to impress voters. The film star held road shows and campaigns at all municipal wards including the connecting villages of the municipality. The YSRC high command specially targeted Hindupur, a stronghold for TD since 1985. Telugu Desam reportedly suffered internal bickering in several wards.
Former MLA Pranganayakulu quit the party and shifted his allegiance to YSRC even after Balakrishna tried to convince him to remain in TD.
In the first ward, YSRC candidate E. Mallikarjnua Gowd won
against nearest rival K. Suresh Babu, an independent candidate, while TD was confined to the third place. Similarly, the third ward also witnessed a worse situation for the TD. There, its candidate got just 244 votes and the YSRC candidate polled 1145 votes while the ORP candidate got 303 votes.
In the 15th ward, the ORP candidate got 722 votes while TD candidate got 140 votes and YSRC’s Shajiya got 874 votes. In the 22nd ward, TD candidate got 241 votes while the YSRC got 1,501 votes and an Independent candidate got 573 votes.
TD was relegated to the third place in more than six wards.
Hindupur YSRC leader Naveen Nischal observed that the people backed chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy's efforts. “People are aware Chandrababu Naidu and his inlaw Balakrishna did nothing for Hindupur and they were taught a lesson during the gram panchayat and municipal polls, he observed.
