Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Parties await results with bated breath

By Our Special Correspondent

VIJAYAWADA, MAY 7. As the deadline for the counting of votes is fast approaching, political parties in the district are keeping their fingers crossed over the outcome of the polls, thanks to the keen contests expected to be witnessed in some constituencies in the district.

The Telugu Desam Party's claims on development and the Congress' confidence on the huge anti-incumbency vote notwithstanding, the votes cast by people affiliated to the Left wing parties are expected to tilt the balance in several constituencies which are expected to witness a neck-and-neck race. The impact of Left wing voters is likely to be more in the constituencies like Avanigadda and Malleswaram from where the Krishna DCC president, Mandali Buddha Prasad, and the Government Chief Whip in the dissolved Assembly, Kagita Venkata Rao, respectively won with wafer-thin majorities in the 1999 elections.

The Left parties also have significant presence in constituencies like Mylavaram, Kankipadu, Tiruvuru, Gannavaram and Vijayawada East which is amply reflected by the votes cast for their candidates in the previous elections. In Tiruvuru, for instance, the victory margin of the TDP candidate, Nallagatla Swami Das, was a little over 900 votes while the CPI(M) candidate polled over 5,500 votes. Same was the case in Malleswaram where Mr. Venkata Rao could scrape through with 677 votes while the Left candidates polled over 2,000 votes. The continuous agitations on various public issues launched by the Left wing in the last four years have only strengthened their presence in these constituencies and, in turn, made the Left vote a decisive factor. Given this background, with its poll tie-up with the Left parties, the Congress, according to the party leaders, certainly enjoyed an edge over the TDP in several constituencies where the victory margins on either side are expected to be considerably low. The Left parties fielded their candidates from the Vijayawada

East and Nidumolu Assembly constituencies while they supported the Congress candidates in other segments. The joint agitations conducted by the Congress and the Left over the past couple of years have only helped the both parties' leadership to come closer and have the message percolate down to the level of the cadre of their respective parties. "This has allayed any apprehensions about the support extended to our candidates by the Left and our cadre reciprocated the same,'' a senior Congress leader says.

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