YSRC leads exit polls

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Exit polls conducted after Tuesday’s bypolls indicated that while the YSR Congress would win most seats, it would not “sweep” the bypolls as had been predicted by the party’s leaders. National new channel Headlines Today predicted that Kadapa MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress would win 13 to 15 Assembly seats and the Nellore Lok Sabha seat. The Congress and Telugu Desam would get a seat each while the Telangana Rashtra Samiti would win in Parkal in Telangana.

Predicting that the YSR Congress would get 40 per cent votes, the exit poll stated that the Reddy community had fully backed Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy and the Congress had not benefited from its merger with Praja Rajyam. Meanwhile, Vijayawada Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal also released the results of his survey which predicted that the YSR Congress would get 12 to 16 seats. It predicted that the TRS would win in Parkal with its candidate M. Bikshapathi defeating YSR Congress nominee and former minister Konda Surekha.

Congress puts up a brave face
Vijayawada Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal, in his survey on the state bypolls, stated the Congress would get at least one seat, at the most three, while the TD would get none to two.

The pro-TD ABN-Andhra Jyothi channel, meanwhile, predicted eight seats to the YSR Congress, five to the Congress, four to the TD and one (Parkal) to the TRS. Leaders of the Congress put up a brave front on Tuesday and stated that as per the party’s internal assessment, the Congress would win in Tirupati, Narasapuram, Ramachandrapuram and Allagadda.

The party’s polls managers had instructed the candidates in these constituencies to organise a “second round” of distribution of “material” for selected groups which, according to them, worked in their favour. The poll managers were especially pleased with their work at Tirupati where they said that they had managed to win over certain YSRC strongholds.

Heavy turnouts in Ramachandrapuram and Narsapuram was also good news for the ruling party and at the end of the polling, party cadres seemed confident of winning four seats. “We have won the Narsapuram seat, the declaration of result is only a formality,” said party MLC Rudraraju Padmaraju. PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana said that the bypoll results would be “encouraging” for the party. “Whether we win or lose, the party will take the responsibility collectively,” he said.

In Parkal, though all five major parties were in the run, the presence of the Congress and the TD apparently helped the TRS candidate to “win” over their arch-rival Konda Surekha. The BJP, which had won the seat twice earlier, however, could not continue its momentum particularly as heavy turnout helped the TRS.