The ruling YSR Congress party has several stalwarts in Prakasam district, including ministers Balineni Srinivasa Reddy and Audimulapu Suresh, TTD chairman Y V Subba Reddy, apart from defectors from TDP like Karanam Balarama Krishna Murthy and Siddha Raghava Rao.
Yet, the party has failed to stall the victory of TDP in the elections to Darsi municipality, results of which were declared on Wednesday.
Despite having a majority of the MLAs on its side and Darsi itself being represented by YSRC MLA Maddisetty Venugopal, the YSRC failed to win the municipality.
The TDP won 13 out of the 20 wards in Darsi municipality and YSRC had to remain content with just seven seats. Though the ruling party might think it was one of those few defeats, it is certainly a moral victory for the TDP and a blow to the YSRC.
In 2019 assembly elections, the YSRC won Darsi assembly seat with a margin of over 40,000 votes. Venugopal established his supremacy in the constituency. But things seemed to have changed a lot within two and a half years.
In fact, the TDP did not have even a constituency incharge in Darsi. It had to appoint a leader from Cheemakurthy. Yet, it could win the municipality with handsome majority, indicating that the YSRC graph is looking downward.
The party failed to win the municipality, despite the fact that several ministers campaigned for the party here.
Interestingly, Prakasam was the only district, where the TDP could win as many as four MLA seats even amidst Jagan wave in 2019.
Out of these four – only Yeluru Sambasiva Rao (Parchur), Gottipati Ravikumar (Addanki) and Dola Sree Balanjaneya Swamy (Kondapi) remained with the TDP and Karanam Balram from Chirala defected to the YSRC.
Yet, the TDP has been able to retain his hold in many parts of the district. In the recent elections to the left over eight seats in various local bodies (Gram Panchayat Sarpanch/Ward member), the TDP bagged five seats and an independent supported by TDP won another seat. The YSRC won only two seats.
Sources said the main reason for the YSRC’s poor show in Darsi is said to be non-seriousness of the top leaders, despite being given a free hand by Jagan.
“He trusted them most, but they failed to live up to his expectations,” a YSRC source said.
