The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : ‘Post-mortem’: TDP leaders speak out

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

‘Post-mortem’: TDP leaders speak out

Special Correspondent

‘Party lost owing to simultaneous elections to LS and Assembly’

In 60 constituencies, TDP candidates lost by a margin of 3,000 to 5,000 votes
Pros and cons of aligning with BJP-led NDA should be explored again, say leaders

HYDERABAD: Strange it may sound, but a section of the Telugu Desam feels the party lost because Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were held simultaneously.

Sources said this was one of the several interesting reasons cited by the party’s legislators and defeated candidates as the party’s post-mortem workshop on elections entered second day on Friday. Party men put forward the logic that barring in 1999, TDP never won in its 27-year-long history whenever there were simultaneous elections. Some felt it won in 1999 because of alliance with BJP.

On the other hand, some felt Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy was the biggest gainer of the simultaneous elections as seen from the difference in voting pattern in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

The Chief Minister scraped through by getting a part of the vote from Lok Sabha elections and not the other way round as is being made out by him.

The Congress high command knew this, they felt. This was also proven by the fact that in about 60 constituencies, TDP candidates lost by a margin of 3,000 to 5,000 votes. A few put the party in dilemma with their suggestion that pros and cons of aligning with BJP-led NDA should be explored again in view of the latest verdict.

They are believed to have argued that the Third Front led by Left parties failed to convince people that it could be an effective alternative to Congress and BJP. As the Third Front was perceived to be unequal to the task of facing BJP, people mainly minorities threw their weight behind the latter. In future too, only BJP-led NDA could take on Congress, they argued.

But for these, many others blamed Praja Rajyam and Lok Satta for the party’s defeat and Grand Alliance partners. The GA partners’ performance was below par and it would have been better if TDP had gone alone.

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