The by-election result in Asifnagar, which has gone in favour of the Mazlis party has more or less underlined the fact that the Congress leadership, especially chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, did not take the sensibilities of urban voters on the whole issue seriously. | |
| D Nagender, who resigned from the state Assembly within months after getting elected on the Telugu Desam ticket, has seen his plans of making it into the state cabinet by getting re-elected as the Congress party's nominee evaporate. His election defeat seems to be another blunder in his political career. |
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| It is another matter, according to Nagender, that he was defeated mainly due to the 'sabotage' by some of the Congress MLAs in the twin cities. The reason supposedly being that as no city MLA has yet got representation in the state cabinet, they saw competition from him. |
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| Y S Rajasekhara Reddy too has gone on record saying he is going to complain against the elements within the party that worked against the party nominee. |
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| But, a mere 38 per cent polling in Asif Nagar by-election has clearly shown the voter indifference towards the forced by-election, which has sealed Nagender's fate. |
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| In fact, as Nagender's decision was purely based on his leader's assurance, the outcome of the by-election may be termed as a personal defeat for YSR. When it comes to loyalties, the chief minister is usually undeterred by what others think on a particular decision, let alone the middle class sensibilities over Nagender's somersaults from Congress to TDP to Congress. |
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| Giving a cue to this sentiment, both the Mazlis and the TDP had demanded that the election expenditure be collected from Nagender for forcing the by-election, which consumed lakhs of rupees of public money. The rivals' strategy has further consolidated the opinion against Nagender. |
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| The Siddipet by-election too has some lessons to offer, even though the seat is retained by the TRS. According to some reports, the reason behind the lesser margin for the present TRS nominee Harish Rao was due to changed loyalties of the urban voter in Siddipet. |
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| Though the voters of Andhra Pradesh gave the Congress-TRS combine a decisive victory in the last Assembly elections, the two by-elections have clearly warned the ruling combine that the support of the urban voter should not be taken for granted. |
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