Bypoll results may see changes in Congress
Friday’s bypoll results will usher in some key changes in AP politics, particularly in the ruling Congress. Counting will begin at 8 am for the 18 Assembly segments and the Nellore Lok Sabha seat. The first trends can be expected by 9.30 am. “We can’t say exactly when the first result will be declared but we hope the total results will be out by 3 pm, with the Nellore Lok Sabha segment expected to take more time,” chief electoral officer Bhanwar Lal said.
Though the Congress, for the first time, has put up a collective front against Kadapa MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, it is to be seen whether Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy will prove himself like his predecessor YSR by winning the bypolls held during his regime.
Congress likely to lose as per exit polls
* Neither the Congress nor the Telugu Desam has won a single seat in bypolls since 2010 and experts say that it is not the question of the Congress losing seats but the margin by which it loses that will be the criteria for the party to plan any changes.
* If the Congress wins five to eight seats as per CM’s assessment, he will be seen as the next big leader in the Congress after YSR. In such a scenario, the YSR Congress will have a tough time keeping its flock from going back to the Congress and chances of other party MLAs joining it will be remote.
* If the Congress wins in Tirupati, chances of Mr Chiranjeevi — who had vacated the seat to go to the Rajya Sabha — getting a Union Cabinet berth will increase. Tirupati is the native district of the Chief Minister who will take it as a prestige issue.
* The results will also compel the Congress central leadership to announce its decision on Telangana soon as the party is bound to lose Parkal and a majority of the seats in the Seemandhra region as per the exit polls.
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