Andhra bypolls a do-or-die battle for Congress

                                                                          
The by-elections to 18 State Assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh, slated for June 12 will be a do-or-die battle for the ruling Congress party as it faces a tough challenge for the fledgling YSR Congress party of YS Jaganmohan Reddy with main Opposition Telugu Desam Party going all out to benefit from the division of Congress votes.
Such is the political significance of these by-elections that this was being described as “mini general election” or a semi-final in the run up to the 2014 general elections. The outcome of the bypoll will be so important that if the Congress looses all of them or even most of them, there was every likelihood of the State plunging into political instability and the Congress Government further loosening its grip.
While 17 Assembly seats and Nellore Lok Sabha seat fell vacant as the supporters of Jaganmohan Reddy in Congress party either resigned or they were disqualified from the Assembly. The Tirupati Assembly seat was vacated by Chiranjeevi on his elevation to the Rajya Sabha by the Congress party.
Except one seat — Parkal in Telangana district of Warangal — all other seats were in Rayal Seema and Andhra region, which have turned the main battle front between the Congress and YSR Congress.
Jaganmohan Reddy’s party has already become a thorn in the Congress flesh as it has won two Assembly seats —Pulivendula and Kovvur. Jagan himself won Kadapa Lok Sabha seat in a by-election with a record breaking margin. If he continues his winning spree and also bags Nellore Lok Sabha constituency and majority of the Assembly seats, it can trigger off fresh exodus from the Congress party putting a question mark on the future of N Kiran Kumar Reddy Government.
The announcement of the by-election schedule by the Election Commission, scheduling the bypoll on June 12, has come as a big blow to the Congress party which was hoping for a delayed bypoll. While YSR Congress has already announced that all the MLAs who had resigned or disqualified will be its candidate in the by-elections, Congress was finding the choice of candidates difficult because of the group rivalries and many contenders of the ticket.
So far the party was able to shortlist candidates for only 14 seats and they were also yet to nod of the high command. The fact that Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and the State Congress president Botsa Satyanarayana do not see eye to eye has only further compounded the woes of the party.
However knowing that if the party loses elections, they will be in real danger of losing their position may force the two top leaders to bury the hatchet for the time being.
The TDP on the other hand was hopeful of benefiting from the fact that the Congress vote bank will now be divided in two parts. The party has decided to make the political instability, policy paralysis and corruption the main issue to target both the Congress and the YSR Congress.
As far as the by-election in lone Telangana Assembly constituency Parkal is concerned, it will be a fight mainly between the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and the YSR Congress.