It'll be a nail-biting finish for parties

Hyderabad: With the poll outcome of the urban and rural local bodies adding to the confusion and uncertainty, major political parties in the State are keeping their fingers crossed and waiting with bated breath for the Assembly and Lok Sabha election results.

Though the key contenders for power are putting up a brave front publicly and exuding confidence about their victory, there is an underlying sense of disquiet in the political camps about the nature of the imminent public verdict.

The confusion was compounded by the poll results of municipalities, ZPTC and MPTCs where there was considerable variation in the voting preferences.

The trend that was observed in the elections to municipalities and corporations differed with the voting pattern in rural civic bodies. This has left the parties confused.

The Telugu Desam Party, which put up a stupendous performance across Seemandhra, is confident that it would repeat the feat in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections as well.

Similarly, in Telangana, both the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Congress are maintaining that they will emerge victorious and form the first government in the new State, despite their inconsistent tallies in the urban and rural local bodies.

On its part, YSR Congress Party, which failed to measure up to the huge expectations whipped up before the polls, argued that the people voted differently for different elections and that the party would emerge as a clear winner in Seemandhra in the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.

The YCP leaders contended that the focus of the local bodies elections was not on who should become the Chief Mnister but was on purely local issues and local candidates.

The differing voting pattern in municipalities and ZPTCs and MPTCs has virtually put the major parties on tenterhooks. For instance, the Telangana voters rewarded Congress in municipal elections but preferred TRS in the Panchayatraj polls.

The TDP and the TRS claimed that they would continue the winning spree in the Assembly and Parliament elections in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana respectively while the YSR Congress and Congress exuded similar confidence.

However, internal assessments of the parties tell a different story as leaders are forced to re-check their calculations. Despite suffering major losses in the local bodies, some leaders are citing several reasons in their favor and sounding confident of winning the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress has faced a stiff resistance from the TRS in Telangana and was forced to share the numbers more or less equally in the PR polls. Surprisingly, the Congress won more MPTCs than the TRS but was behind the regional party in ZPTC tally.

However, Telangana PCC president Ponnala Laxmaiah claimed that their party has won more votes than the TRS and asserted that his party would form the government in Telangana.

Internally party fears a defeat as the PR results are not very encouraging. However, the TRS failures in south Telangana are keeping the ruling party's hopes alive.

On the other hand, the TRS, which trailed behind the Congress in municipal elections, bounced back and put up a good show in the PR elections. Its leaders are confident that they would get the required numbers to form the government.

TRS leader E Rajendar said that as people want the TRS to be part of rebuilding of Telangana, they had voted for it and asserted that they would win 70 to 80 seats.

However, the party leaders were embarrassed by the defeats in south Telangana. A leader of JAC told on anonymity that unless it wins 15 to 20 seats in south Telangana it would not be possible to cross the halfway mark in Telangana Assembly.

As far as Andhra Pradesh is concerned, YSR Congress is still confident of putting up a good show in Assembly and Parliament elections, despite losing ground in the local bodies. Party senior leader MV Mysura Reddy said that his party would win 120 to 150 Assembly and about 20 Parliament seats.