Voters unwilling to forgive SCS denial

Ever since its alliance with the TDP broke down in early 2018, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has claimed to be in a position to call the shots in government formation in Andhra Pradesh (A.P.). But its dream has hit a road block with a complete rout in both the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.

As per Election Commission of India (ECI) data, the party has drawn a blank in the 25 Lok Sabha and 175 Assembly constituencies where it contested. The party’s vote share of 0.90% (2,17,814 votes) is lower than the 1.50% (3,65,726) polled by the None-Of-The-Above (NOTA).

The writing was on the wall for the BJP which evidently incurred the wrath of voters for not implementing the A.P. Reorganisation Act and for denying the Special Category Status (SCS) notwithstanding what it called the ‘U’ turn taken by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

With the break with the TDP, the BJP also lost the support of the Jana Sena Party (JSP), which had extended outside support to the BJP-TDP alliance in 2014.

In 2014, BJP candidates Kambhampati Haribabu and Gokaraju Gangaraju won in Visakhapatnam and Narsapuram LS constituencies and Akula Satyanarayana, P. Vishnu Kumar Raju, Pydikondala Manikyala Rao and Kamineni Srinivas in Rajahmundry urban, Visakhapatnam north, Tadepalligudem and Kaikalur Assembly constituencies respectively.

BJP State president Kanna Lakshminarayana was trailing way behind in Narsaraopet LS with just 11,109 votes with the YSRCP’s Lavu Krishna Devarayulu at 5,54,864 votes and the TDP’s Rayapati Sambasiva Rao at 4,42,076 when reports last came in.

Distant third

P. Vishnu Kumar Raju, party floor leader in the Assembly and the only sitting BJP MLA (Visakhapatnam north) to contest again from the same Assembly constituency, was relegated to the third position behind former Minister for Human Resources Development Ganta Srinivasa Rao (TDP) and YSRCP’s K. Kannapa Raju with a tally of just 11,163 votes.

In the Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency, Daggubati Purandeswari was again in third position behind M.V.V. Satyanarayana of YSRCP and TDP’s M. Bharat.