ANDHRA PRADESH: WARM-UP BEFORE THE FINALS
For both the TDP and YSR Congress, the Nandyal bypoll will hold early signs of which way the 2019 assembly elections may go
The August 23 Nandyal assembly by-election in Andhra Pradesh could well be a watershed moment. Acrimonious and fierce, the contest is not as much between the candidates as between chief minister and ruling Telugu Desam Party supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu and Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, the YSR Congress chief and Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly. The Election Commission will use the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in the poll.
TDP nominee Bhuma Bramananda Reddy is the nephew of B. Nagi Reddy, who was elected to the state assembly on a YSR Congress ticket in 2014, but returned to the TDP in 2016. His daughter, B. Akhila Priya, 28, became the youngest member of Naidu’s cabinet in April. Naidu, however, faces a herculean challenge of wresting Nandyal from the YSR Congress. He has toured the constituency thrice and posted 10 ministers besides senior party leaders. Naidu has even accused Jagan’s late father, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, of plotting a Maoist attempt on his life in 2003.
Peeved at the defection of the Bhuma family, Jagan Reddy has fielded Silpa Mohan Reddy, the TDP nominee against Nagi Reddy in 2014. The contest is equally prestigious for the YSR Congress. Both Naidu and Jagan evidently view Nandyal as the pace-setter for the assembly polls in 2019. Jagan has requisitioned the services of poll strategist Prashant Kishor. His campaign is vitriolic. “It’s time to bring the chief minister down on his knees and end his misrule” and “it’s not wrong to hang Naidu for not keeping poll promises” are among his campaign lines.
Jagan clearly sees Nandyal as his springboard to power in the state in 2019. And that could well be within reach. In 2014, the TDP polled just 601,539 votes more than the YSR Congress to gain a 35-seat lead in the 175-member state assembly.
The YSR Congress vote share was dangerously close to that of the TDP with a mere difference of 1.7 per cent. But neither side wants the contest to be a cliffhanger. With the VVPAT for the first time displaying individual voters’ preference on paper, both parties hope Nandyal will give a decisive verdict, and show the way to 2019.
IN 2014, THE YSR CONGRESS POLLED JUST 1.7 PER CENT VOTES LESS THAN THE TDP