Political Diary

Congress party leaders and workers staged a protest at the collectorate here on Sunday demanding recounting in Uravakonda assembly segment blaming that the returning officer (RO) had hastily issued the winning declaration for TDP candidate P Kesav.
Kesav won by a thin 242 votes against his Congress rival Y Visweswar Reddy. Visweswar along with Anantapur MP-elect A Venkatrami Reddy and other leaders staged a dharna demanding recounting. They alleged that the RO had colluded with the TDP candidate and issued the declaration.
In the close finish, Kesav got 64,741 votes while Visweswar secured 64,499 votes and PRP candidate got 8255 votes. Kesav defeated Visweswar Reddy by a small margin of 242 votes.
"We have several doubts on the counting process and urged for recounting on Saturday but the RO urgently issued the winning declaration form to the TDP candidate," Visweswar alleged. Meanwhile, collector Anil Kumar said he would bring the matter to the notice of the Election Commission.

No matter which party gets power in Andhra Pradesh and which party bags the maximum number of Lok Sabha seats from the state, voters in the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency always elect the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM).
The delimitation of constituencies has come as a boon for the Muslim political party as it improved its tally in the state assembly from five to seven seats, while retaining Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat for the eighth consecutive term. MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi won the seat for the second term despite stiff challenge from Telugu Desam Party (TDP) candidate Zahid Ali Khan, editor of Urdu daily Siasat who had the support of TDP allies Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Communist Party Of India (CPI) and Communist party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
The London-educated barrister had first won the seat in 2004, when his father Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi made way for him after representing the seat for six consecutive terms since 1984.
The young Muslim leader, who took over as MIM president last year after the death of his father, defeated Khan by a majority of 113,865 votes. The MIM chief secured 308,361 votes while his nearest rival polled 194,196 votes. This was the first election after delimitation of the constituency, which earlier had three out of seven assembly segments in the rural areas. The delimitation increased the percentage of Muslim voters from 50 percent to 70 percent.
In the previous elections, the MIM had the BJP as its main rival. The BJP’s senior leader M. Venkaiah Naidu had also contested unsuccessfully from this constituency in 1996. MIM, which had an unofficial understanding with the ruling Congress party, maintained its supremacy in the assembly elections too, winning the two newly created assembly constituencies in the city and increasing its tally from five to seven.
Asaduddin’s younger brother Akbaruddin Owaisi won the Chandrayangutta assembly seat for the third consecutive term. Akbaruddin will continue to be the party’s leader in the assembly. The party also retained its traditional strongholds of Charminar, Yakutpura and Karwan and won the newly created Bahadurpura and Nampally constituencies. The MIM also wrested the Malakpet seat from the Congress party. Asifnagar, the constituency won by MIM in 2004, was scrapped in the delimitation.
While the MIM improved its tally, the number of Muslim candidates in 294-member assembly remained at 11. Three Muslims candidates of the Congress and one from the TDP were elected to the assembly. However, two Muslim ministers Mohammed Ali Shabbir and Mohammed Fareeduddin were defeated.
The number of Muslims MPs from the state came down from two to one. In 2004, Nizamuddin of the Congress was elected from Hindupur Lok Sabha constituency but this time the party fielded Khasim Khan, who lost the election to the TDP candidate. Muslims constitute about 10 percent of the 57.8 million voters in the state.

Tamil Nadu and Andhra once again lived up to their reputation of playing a decisive role in the formation of government at theCentre with both the states contributing more than 65 seats to kitty of Congress-led UPA which will retain power.
While ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh won 32 out of the total 42 seats in the state, DMK-Congress combine emerged victorious in 28 out of the 39 seats in neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
Congress also wrested the lone seat in Puducherry from PMK with Union Minister V Narayanaswamy winning from there by a comfortable margin.
It was UPA’s tally of 75 from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry that had helped the Congress form the government at the Centre after the 2004 elections.
Since 1996 Lok Sabha elections, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have played a major role in the government formation at the Centre.
It was DMK, TMC and TDP which had mooted the United Front that ruled the country for just one-and-a-half years. Then in 1998 elections, TDP, AIADMK, PMK and MDMK had played the role of a kingmaker when BJP formed a government with its allies.
When an election was forced on the country after Jayalalithaa withdrew support to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government in 2009, BJP joined hands with TDP in Andhra Pradesh and DMK in Tamil Nadu and bagged maximum number of seats which helped BJP come back to power again.
DMK, PMK and MDMK cobbled an alliance with Congress and trounced the AIADMK-BJP combine by scoring 40 out of 40 in 2004.

Y S Rajasekhara Reddy appeared all set to lead a second term as Congress inched towards the crucial 148 seats mark. At 2:30 pm, Congress had won 110 seats with TDP trailing behind with 82 seats. The TRS won nine seats, Left parties 3, PRP 11 and others 3.
The Congress was way ahead in the Lok Sabha seats leading in 33 seats with TDP trailing far behind with 6 seats. The TRS was leading in 2 while the PRP is yet to open its account.
Reddy won from Pulivendala constituency with a margin of 69,000 votes while TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu won with a margin of 49,000 votes from Kuppam constituency.
TRS President K Chandrasekhara Rao was trailing from Mahbubnagar LS constituency. In Hyderabad Asaduddin Owaisi of the AIMIM was also trailing behind TDP’s Zahid Ali Khan after the second round of counting.
The Congress is likely to take the support of AIMIM and independents if required to form the government. At least half a dozen ministers of the YSR government were trailing and may lose. They include Energy and Minority Minister Shabbir Ali from Kamareddy and R&B Minister Jeevan Reddy from Jagitiyala

A jubilant Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed the press at 10 Janpath as it became clear that the UPA and the Congress party on its own had made spectacular gains in these elections. Sonia put at rest all speculation by stating firmly that Manmohan Singh would be the Prime Minister.
Gandhi said the people of India always made the right choice.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that with this verdict, the public had expressed confidence in the Congress and faith in Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. He also said that he would try to get Rahul in the Cabinet.
The Congress-led UPA is all set to retain power at the Centre putting up an impressive performance in states like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to overwhelm the BJP-led NDA.
The UPA alliance is ahead in 250 constituencies with Congress alone leading in 198 seats. The ruling Front is just short of a little over 20 seats for the magic figure of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha.
The NDA is leading in 157 seats with BJP ahead in 119 seats.
The Congress exulted over its victory saying it was a vindication of its policies while BJP spokespersons were still unwilling to concede defeat though they admitted that the UPA was ahead in early trends.
Manmohan Singh will be the first Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after a full five-year term with the Congress having nominated him as its candidate for the top post, first time it had done in its history.
The Congress performance was spectacular in Kerala where it routed the Left Front and dealt a severe blow to the Marxists in West Bengal with help from ally Trinamool Congress.
It also swept Delhi, did exceedingly well in Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and more than doubled its tally in UP leading in 20 of the 80 seats there.
Meanwhile, the Congress said Rahul Gandhi’s leadership of the campaign was one of the decisive factors behind the party’s good performance.
Pointers to emerging scenario:
NCP chief Sharad Pawar said a stable government was the need of the hour in these times of global recession and there should be no problem in formation of a stable government.
"People were confident that only UPA can provide a stable government and with the results and trends available so far, there should be no hindrance to formation of a stable government," Pawar said.
He also said that his party would support Congress’s choice for PM.
BJP spokesperson Balbir Punj said the trends were "disappointing" and not on expected lines.
"Trends are not on expected lines. It is little disappointing. We concede UPA is ahead," Punj said. He said the party’s parliamentary board would meet to analyse what went wrong.
Admitting that Congress "seems to have the upper hand", another BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said, "As of now UPA is leading. We are lagging behind."
Asked what went wrong, Naidu said, "That has to be analysed. It is disappointing, I do agree".
The CPI on the other hand ruled out supporting a Congress-led government, saying it would sit in opposition if the people’s mandate was not for forming a non-BJP, non-Congress government at the Centre.
"We are not with Congress party either at the end of the day or at beginning of the day...if the mandate is not for us to form a non-BJP non-Congress government, alright, then we will sit in the opposition," D Raja said.
On the Left’s performance in Kerala, the CPI leader said there were certain "adverse factors" in the southern state and "we need to analyse in the coming days".
Also, the Congress has not ruled out support from Janata Dal (United)’s Nitish Kumar.

The glamour quotient of Telugu superstar K. Chiranjeevi failed to garner votes as his Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) appeared to be headingfor a crushing defeat in the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections.
Despite a high-pitch campaign and tall claims, the PRP launched by the actor in August last year came a cropper as the votes were counted Saturday.
Initial trends from all 294 assembly constituencies show the party is leading in only 20 assembly constituencies. The party candidates are leading in two out of 42 Lok Sabha constituencies.
The only consolation for Chiranjeevi is that despite a poor performance, his party may hold the key to power as both the ruling Congress party and the four-party grand alliance led by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) appear to stop short of majority.
There was gloom in PRP camp, as the actor had been hopeful of his party reaching the magic figure of 148.
Chiranjeevi himself was trailing in Palacole assembly constituency in his native West Godavari district, though he was ahead in Tirupati, the other assembly segment he is contesting.
The party failed to make any impact even in East and West Godavari districts and some other parts of coastal Andhra, where it was expected to do well. The presence of PRP only seemed to have affected the prospects of TDP in some constituencies and of Congress in some others.
The trends are a big blow to the 53-year-old actor, who had launched the party with a mammoth public meeting in Tirupati amid high expectations from his fans.
After a three-decade-long film career, his plunge into politics was expected to dramatically alter the political equations in the state. Pundits had compared the event to the political entry of the legendary actor N.T. Rama Rao, who created history by coming to power within nine months after launching TDP in 1982.
Though as a film star the popularity of Chiranjeevi was comparable to that of NTR, he failed to match NTR in politics.
Chiranjeevi, who launched the party on the slogan of social justice, had hoped to become the first Andhra Pradesh chief minister from his Kapu community. Despite having a sizeable majority, the community is yet to have its leader as chief minister in a state where most of the chief ministers were either from Reddys or Kammas, the two dominant castes.
The migration of several leaders from TDP to Chiranjeevi’s camp also failed to help the party. PRP’s prospects were also hit by series of resignations by its leaders before the elections to protest the manner in which tickets were distributed.