Desertions one reason for defeat: YSR Congress

We need to focus on strengthening the party from the village-level, says a senior party leader

May 19, 2014 12:28 am | Updated November 16, 2021 07:06 pm IST - HYDERABAD

The YSR Congress, after introspection, has come to the conclusion that desertion by some politically and socially dominant communities in Seemandhra led to its defeat in the general election. A preliminary analysis brought to the fore the party’s inability to garner the votes of such dominant communities, indecision on candidates’ selection and failure to build the organisation at the grassroots level.

A few core members met party chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy on Saturday and Sunday for an informal analysis of the results. The backroom technical team has already taken up an exercise to figure out the factors leading to the poor show by mapping station-wise voting patterns, sources in the party said.

A senior leader referred to the party’s failure to keep with it some key communities in north coastal, Konaseema and central coastal districts. “We need to focus on strengthening the party from the village-level to prevent recurrence of such goof-ups,” he said.

The party gave a majority of the 34 Assembly seat tickets in East and West Godavari districts to two such communities but it could win only five seats. “The electorate among the two communities distanced themselves from the party towards polling day though they were with us till the nominations process was over,” the sources stated.

Two other reasons could be the TDP’s announcement of the Deputy Chief Minister’s post to one of the two communities and the campaign by actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan, who squarely targeted YSR Congress, sources added.

In three north coastal districts, the party fared badly by bagging only nine out of 34 seats as it could not keep the backward class communities with it. A particular community identified with TDP had also gone against YSR Congress in Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts as reflected in the results, which gave only 15 out of 45 seats to the party, the sources analysed.

The party’s inability to accommodate a few backward class community candidates in Anantapur is also a reason for the party’s near rout there as it could win only two out of 14 seats.

Comparatively, the party put up a good show in Kurnool, Kadapa and Chittoor districts by getting 28 out of 38 seats.

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