Ever since YSR Congress party led by former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy lost the assembly elections with a huge margin in June this year, popular Hyderabad-based poll strategist AARAA Masthan has quietly disappeared from the scene.
While majority of the exit poll surveys predicted the defeat of Jagan in the elections, AARAA Masthan was the only major exit poll predictor who said Jagan-led YSRCP would win 94-104 seats in the state with a vote share of 49.41%.
He predicted that the alliance parties would secure 71-81 seats with a vote share of 47.51%. Masthan opined that other party contestants and independent candidates would secure a vote share of 3.04%.
Even when the initial trends were coming out on the day of polling indicating the resurgence of the TDP, Mastan was firm on his prediction that Jagan will return to power. But after a few rounds of counting, Mastan made a quiet exit from TV channel debates and disappeared since then.
Now with the talk of one-nation-one poll gaining ground across the country, AARAA Mastan surfaced again, raising the issue of alleged irregularities in the declaration of election results in Andhra Pradesh in June.
He wrote a letter to the Election Commission of India, asking for an explanation why there was a delay in the uploading of polling details on the EC website during the assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh.
“The authorities have to upload Form-20, containing all the details of the polling constituency-wise, in the official website of the Election Commission within 48 hours. But in Andhra Pradesh, the EC took more than 100 days after the completion of election process. What is the reason?” Mastan asked.
He reminded that the EC itself had formulated certain rules and regulations on the polling details. But the Commission had not followed these rules with regard to Andhra Pradesh.
“Can EC give an explanation in this regard?” he asked.
