Punters confuse candidates

Warangal: Notwithstanding the exit polls that by and large indicated TRS to retain power, there is a lot of anxiety among the candidates with the pollsters coming up with contradictory opinions. The candidates of the major political parties, who have been reviewing the polling trend with their poll managers and senior leaders for the last three days, are indeed a confused lot.

Even though there are more than half-a-dozen constituencies of the 12 in the erstwhile Warangal district where the fight is perilously close between the ruling TRS and the Congress-led Maha Kutami (People’s Front) candidates, people’s focus is especially on Warangal East, Parkal, Bhupalpally and Jangaon, so is the punters’ focus. With the punters reportedly splurging money on TRS and Congress candidates, it has become an unenviable task for the candidates to measure their chances.

The local leaders and pollsters say that there is every possibility of exit poll results announced by the national media and other organisations going haywire. “The political dynamics change from place to place based on party, candidate and local issues,” a senior TRS leader told The Hans India, stating that exit polls are not always accurate.

There are several instances in the past when exit polls were way off the mark, he said, referring to the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Then almost all exit polls suggested majority to the BJP-led NDA government but its other way around, he said, terming exit polls as reflection of a sample of voters.

The exit polls have also gone haywire in last year elections to Uttar Pradesh Assembly. Even though all exit polls predicted a hung Assembly, BJP emerged as a single largest party winning over 300 seats, said buttressing his argument.  

It’s said in the region that the TRS has a special focus on Warangal East and Parkal seats. It may be mentioned here that Konda Surekha, who represented Warangal East as TRS MLA in the previous Assembly, had crossed over to Congress and contested from Parkal. Surekha, who is up against sitting MLA Challa Dharma Reddy, is facing a stiff contest in Parkal.

TRS also wanted to see the back of Congress’ Vaddiraj Ravichandra, who contested from Warangal East with the support of Kondas, it’s learnt. Ravichandra, who looked like a true novice to the politics initially, made a strong comeback to match TRS’ Nannapuneni Narender. Both Narender and Ravichandra camps are confident of winning the election.

In Bhupalpally, Speaker Sirikonda Madhusudana Chary is facing a multi-cornered contest against Congress’ Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy, BJP’s Chandupatla Keerthi Reddy and All India Forward Bloc’s Gandra Satyanarayana. Reports say that all the four candidates had received good response from the people when they campaigned.

Former TPCC President Ponnala Lakshmaiah, who had to struggle to confirm his candidature, is also walking a tightrope against TRS’ Muthireddy Yadagiri Reddy in Jangaon.

With the results slated to be announced on Tuesday (December 11), punters are hooked on to their phones updating themselves on the current position of MLA candidates to splurge money. It’s learnt that friendly betting where losers have to throw a party to the winners is also high in the region.