TDP's vote bank dips, faces setback in Tirupati

Tirupati: The division in the anti-establishment vote between the TDP and BJP has made a huge impact on the majority by which YSRCP emerged victorious in the Tirupati Lok Sabha byelection. The big drop in the poll percentage was also another factor in creating some confusion among political circles that which party has felt the heat of it.

There was a drop of about 15 per cent in the poll percentage with which both the ruling YSRCP and opposition TDP's votes have also witnessed a huge fall. Taking the three Assembly segments in Chittoor district – Tirupati, Srikalahasti and Satyavedu together, YSRCP got 2,88,012 votes in the 2019 elections. The party had to lose 27,121 votes from 2019 and has to settle with 2,60,891 now, though it can be attributed to the drop in poll percentage. YSRCP's majority in Satyavedu and Srikalahasti also came down now. It got a lead of 32,919 in Srikalahasti earlier but now it fell to 31469. Similarly, in Satyavedu, the majority has come down to 38,144 from 42,196 in 2019.

TDP has lost seven per cent vote share in these three constituencies compared to 2019. In absolute terms, the party got 1,48,751 votes now with a drop of 67,724 votes from 2019 votes of 2,16,745. Though the party lost its vote bank from 2019 in all three segments, it felt a major setback in Tirupati constituency. From 81,842 votes in 2019, TDP experienced a huge drop of 37,021 votes now to get only 44,421. In fact, TDP got a lead over YSRCP in MP elections in 2019 though in Assembly polling YSRCP candidate got a slender margin. For this reason, the ruling party has focussed more on this constituency on the polling day. The opposition parties have even levelled wide allegations on YSRCP that it has indulged in large scale rigging in the city. In fact, the BJP's aggressive campaigning and alliance with Jana Sena helped them to secure more votes though the party forfeited its deposit. In all three assembly segments it could increase its votes significantly. It got 9,206 votes in 2019 from these three segments which has not gone up to 27,084 now. Still there was a strong perception that JSP vote bank has not fully converted to BJP. However, the growth in BJP's votes is being attributed to the division of anti-establishment vote between TDP and BJP which has come as a major advantage for YSRCP. TDP leaders are fearing that this will make an adverse impact even in the next general elections. Congress and CPM have failed to make any impact on the results as both were confined to less than 10,000 votes which is below one per cent of vote share.