The minority card played by the YSRC in the Nellore municipal corporation proved to be a big success with the party winning a comfortable majority. The YSRC’s candidates won in 31 divisions as against 18 secured by the TDP, one by the Congress, one by the CPM and three others.
The unquestioned support came to the YSRC in the minority pockets located in the divisions from 34 to 54 in the municipal corporation. The party candidates won nearly 17 out of the total 20 divisions of good minority influence.
The YSRCP leadership used the strategy to project minority leader Aizeez Abdul as its mayoral candidate in the present elections. This plan paid rich dividends with the party nominees securing winning edge in many pockets with this support.
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Moreover, the YSRC also posted good wins in pockets like Mulapet where the Balija community members were in considerable numbers.
The TDP looked forward to strong support from the Backward Classes and educated sections but this was not enough for the party to get an upper hand in the elections.
In some divisions, the difference between the TDP and YSRC vote share was very thin. For example, YSRC nominee Kakuturu Sunanda won with just 16 votes in the 39th division.
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The overall difference of votes between YSRC and TDP in the 54 divisions put together was 12,705 votes. YSRC got 1.01 lakh votes in all the divisions and TDP got 88,619, followed by Congress with 21,182, CPM - 12,031 and BJP - 9,661.
The long-time strongholds of divisions 2 to 4 were retained by the TDP and the minority voters here remained with this party showing their unwavering loyalty.
The present election proved to be a big blow to the Congress leadership. The only relief was that senior leader Anam Vivekananda Reddy’s son Ranga Mayur Reddy won in the 12th division with a comfortable majority.
The Congress party’s vote share also declined considerably with the party getting just 21,182 total votes in all the 54 divisions put together.
The TDP sought to outsmart the YSRC by projecting a BC leader as its mayoral candidate. The party expected total support from the Backward Classes but it lost to a little extent in the BC pockets as well.