All set for Andhra battle

Vijayawada: The stage is set for a mega poll battle in the state to elect 175-member Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats. The over 45-day campaign witnessed fervent speeches by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan and APCC chief Y S Sharmila.

YSRCP president Jagan (Pulivendula), TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu (Kuppam) and Jana Sena chief and actor Pawan Kalyan (Pithapuram Assembly seat), D Purandeswari (Rajahmundry Lok Sabha and AP Congress president YS Sharmila (Kadapa LS) are among others in the poll fray.

The YSRCP is contesting in all 175 Assembly seats and 25 Lok Sabha segments in the state. As part of a seat-sharing deal among the NDA partners, the TDP was allocated 144 Assembly and 17 Lok Sabha constituencies, while the BJP will contest from six Lok Sabha and 10 Assembly seats.

Breaking barriers it was blazing attack on each other by the YSRCP and the NDA alliance partners for about 60 days. The YSR Congress campaign centered around the welfare measures that it implemented during the past five years, while the NDA highlighted the "failures" of the state government and the doles it would provide, if voted to power in the state.

Job creation and the Land Titling Act were the two main issues that gained importance during the hectic campaign. Besides PM Modi, several Union ministers, including Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, and Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi undertook the campaigns for their respective party candidates. It now remains to be seen whether the fan would continue to be in ‘On’ mode or will the double engine be powered.

The newly appointed DGP Harish Kumar Gupta made necessary arrangements to redeploy the forces in many places particularly in Rayalaseema and Macherla region where earlier officers reportedly allocated less number of police forces.

He is said to have reviewed the situation in the wake of complaints from the Opposition parties and a greater number of paramilitary and armed forces have been deployed. The EC also took serious note of attempts to disturb webcasting by disconnecting the wires of webcasting arrangements. They had complained to the police and urged them to make necessary security arrangements.

About 1.06 lakh security personnel, including 3,500 Karnataka police, 4,500 Tamil Nadu police, 1,614 ex-servicemen and 246 retired police personnel, among others have been deployed for smooth conduct of polls.

The total number of voters in the state is 4.14 crore, which includes 2.02 crore male, 2.1 crore female, 3,421 third gender voters and 68,185 service electors. As many as 454 candidates are in the fray for Lok Sabha and 2,387 for Assembly polls, according to Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer MK Meena.

Exuding confidence about winning the polls, the YSRCP chief asserted that he is no ‘Abhimanyu' to succumb to the alleged political conspiracies plotted by the opposition parties. In a post on Saturday on 'X', Reddy called himself ‘Arjuna', who is accompanied by Lord Krishna-like people to emerge triumphant.

TDP chief Naidu appealed to the people of the state to exercise their franchise as it is crucial for the future of the state.