With just 11 days left for the counting of votes for the assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, tension is mounting among the candidates of various political parties about their fate.
Since there is no other major news for the media houses to focus on until the counting of votes, they are dishing out stories on how the counting will take place and when the first trends will emerge.
Every newspaper, television channel, and digital media house is making its own calculations to predict which way the result will swing – towards the ruling YSR Congress Party or the Telugu Desam Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
According to a media house that has analyzed the poll trends based on the voting percentage, the YSRCP has a slight edge over the NDA if the voting pattern is taken into consideration.
The final polling figures indicate that 33,340,333 voters exercised their franchise in Andhra Pradesh, with 16.4 million male voters and 16.9 million female voters. Thus, women voters outnumbered male voters by five lakhs.
“This is a plus point for the YSRCP, as the majority of women voters have voted in favor of the ruling party due to the strict implementation of welfare schemes that helped women financially. Not only did they vote for Jagan, but they also influenced their husbands and other family members to vote for the YSRCP,” said an analyst working for the media house.
Secondly, the rural voting percentage is two percent higher than the urban voting percentage, which also favored the YSRCP, according to the media house.
However, another media house expressed the view that government employees, educated unemployed youth, middle-class and upper-middle-class voters, and urban voters have voted for the TDP and its alliance partners.
“Even in rural areas, there is no information that 100% of women voters and poorer sections have voted for the YSRCP and rejected the TDP,” the media house said.
“The fact that the polling percentage increased by 2% compared to 2019 is also an indication that they voted for the TDP-Jana Sena-BJP combine,” it added.
The TDP is also banking on 444,000 postal votes, mostly belonging to employees and people in emergency services. However, the YSRCP says elderly and physically disabled voters who used the home voting option voted for its candidates.
In any case, the first round of results will come out within 15-20 minutes of the start of the vote counting, and by 10:30 am, the trends of which party is likely to form the next government will be clear.
