Nellore: Showcasing its grip over the district once again, the YSR Congress recorded a spectacular victory in the Nellore Municipal Corporation and grabbed the Buchireddypalem Urban Local Body. The ruling party leaders are on cloud nine and its cadre is in a celebratory mood across the state.
In Nellore, the party won all the 54 divisions. YSRC leaders especially Nellore city legislator and water resources Minister Anilkumar Yadav and Nellore rural legislator Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy said they were confident of a clean sweep right from day one, after the filing of nominations for the civic polls.
The two started identifying strong candidates for the 54 divisions two months before the notification and managed to woo many TD contenders into the YSR Congress fold. On the other hand, TD poll managers had a tough time identifying candidates and the selection process remained incomplete till about the eleventh hour. To their shock, some of the contesting candidates of TD withdrew from the fray after collecting B-forms.
In spite of the setbacks, TD was hoping to win at least 5 to 10 divisions but drew a blank. In the backdrop of rumours over some TD leaders working against party nominees and joining hands with the ruling party, feelings are rife that the time has come for TD and its chief Chandrababu Naidu to introspect the reasons for the humiliating defeat.
Notably, the TD had lost all the 46 ZPTC seats to the ruling party a few months ago. As a result, there is no opposition to the ruling party both in Nellore Municipal Corporation and the Zilla Parishat.
Sources in YSRC said they are likely to pick Deverakonda Sujatha, Corporator from 53rd division, for the Mayor post and Roopkumar Yadav (40th division), a close associate of minister Anilkumar, for the deputy mayor post. The second deputy mayor post is likely to go to a Reddy.
Meanwhile, the YSRC won 18 wards in Buchireddypalem Urban Local Body and the TD ended up with just two wards out of the total 20. Kovur legislator Nallapareddy Prasannakumar commended the local party leaders for the victory.
