If one goes by what TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu had said today, the party’s vote base is almost intact from 2019 general elections to 2021 Panchayat elections.
Though the party is having tough time with rather low number of seats, its base had not eroded in the last 20 months, despite the fact that the Jagan Mohan Reddy dispensation is rolling out welfare initiatives apolitical.
The fear of the TDP losing its vote share due to Jagan’s welfare schemes seems to be untrue, if Chandrababu Naidu’s analysis and the data provided by him is to be believed.
The TDP had secured 1.23 crore votes in the 2019 general elections and won 23 Assembly seats.
This was 39.99 per cent in terms of total votes polled in the election.
Chandrababu Naidu now said that the party’s candidates in Gram Panchayats have secured 38.74 per cent votes.
This would mean that the party had lost just 1.25 per cent of the total votes polled in the panchayat elections after 20 months.
This, in other words, means that the party had lost just 1.25 per cent of votes against the 151-member strong and mighty YSR Congress.
There is certainly some disadvantage to the opposition party in the panchayat and other local body elections.
The ruling party would always have the advantage of being in power and having access to the administration and other resources.
Looking at these aspects, the TDP is not in that bad situation in the state, if one has to analyse the situation after Chandrababu Naidu’s revelations after the panchayat election results on Wednesday.