Municipal Elections in Andhra Pradesh have given an idea about the political scape in the state. BJP and Janasena always believed that the Opposition space in the state is up for grabs and they are strong contenders for that. But then, there is nothing of such sort happening going by the election results.
For some time, keep the number of victories aside. Let us see in how many places the parties were able to put up candidates. Out of the 2,122 wards in municipalities, Janasena could only put up candidates in 260 places. This is less even when compared to what BJP did (343).
Both the parties together could not field half of the candidates put up by TDP (1418). Coming to the Corporations, out of 671 divisions, Janasena (202) was marginally ahead of BJP (184). TDP managed to put up candidates in 524 places. Putting up candidates in this election is not easy as the ruling party tried to get them to withdraw by using various tactics.
Keeping the candidates in such adverse conditions indicate the strength of a party at the grassroots levels. This has proved that TDP has its organizational structure intact and Janasena-BJP lacks that at this moment. Two years have gone waste already. That should be the priority before these parties could start hoping to occupy TDP’s slot.
