Close to two years after coming to power, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) handed yet another crushing defeat to the TDP and the BJP-Jana Sena Party alliance by winning all 11 municipal corporations and 69 out of 71 municipalities/nagar panchayats that went to polls in Andhra Pradesh on March 10.
The elections for Macherla (Guntur), Piduguralla (Guntur), Pulivendula (Kadapa) and Punganur (Chittoor) municipalities were unanimous and the counting of votes polled in Eluru Municipal Corporation had to be kept on hold due to a High Court order.
Tadipatri in Anantapur and Mydukur in Kadapa are the only municipalities which the TDP won in the State amidst the pro-incumbency wave not witnessed in a long time while the JSP won a few divisions / wards more than its partner (BJP) in the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) and some municipalities.
The YSRCP made a clean sweep of all municipalities in Srikakulam district (Ichapuram, Palasa - Kasibugga and Palakonda), Vizianagaram (Bobbili, Nellimarla, Parvathipuram and Salur), Visakhapatnam (Narsipatnam and Yalamanchili), East Godavari (Amalapuram, Gollaprolu, Mandapeta, Mummidivaram, Peddapuram, Pithapuram, Ramachandrapuram, Samalkot, Tuni and Yeleswaram), West Godavari (Narsapuram, Kovvur, Nidadavolu and Jangareddygudem), Krishna (Nandigama, Nuzvid, Pedana, Tiruvuru and Vuyyuru), Guntur (Chikaluripeta, Repalle, Sattenapalli, Tenali and Vinukonda), Prakasam (Addanki, Chimakurthy, Chirala, Giddalur, Kanigiri and Markapur), Nellore (Atmakur, Naidupeta, Sullurupeta and Venkatagiri) and Kurnool (Allagadda, Adoni, Atmakur, Gudur, Dhone, Nandikotkur, Nandyal and Yemmiganur).
The corporations won by the YSRCP as per latest reports are Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Anantapur, Chittoor, Guntur, Kadapa, Kurnool, Machilipatnam, Ongole, Tirupati and Vizianagaram.
The YSRCP romped home with impressive tallies in GVMC and the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) where neither the privatisation of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant nor the proposal to shift the capital from Amaravati to the port city in the name of ‘Executive Capital’ helped the TDP or the BJP-JSP combine in putting up a reasonable performance.
A YSRCP leader claimed that the overwhelming mandate which his party secured in Guntur and its unassailable lead in VMC proved that the ‘three capitals’ were a non-issue.
‘Credit to welfare agenda’
Speaking to media persons, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister Botcha Satyanarayana said the slew of welfare schemes implemented by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy helped the YSRCP in stealing the march over its rivals and that TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu had made a failed bid to halt the same.
