Andhra Pradesh:YSR Congress sweeps local body polls

The Yuvajan Sramika Rythu (YSR) Congress, led by Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, has swept the Andhra Pradesh local body polls, the results for which were announced on Sunday. The party had won close to 90 per cent of the Mandal Parishads Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs) and a staggering 99 per cent of the Zilla Parishads Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs).The elections were conducted on April 8 for 515 ZPTCs and 7,220 MPTCs. The results were originally scheduled to be declared on April 10. However, the Andhra Pradesh High Court stalled the counting based on petitions filed by the Telugu Desam Party and the BJP, among others.

The opposition alleged that the mandatory Model Code of Conduct period was not taken into consideration from the date of announcement of the poll schedule. Last Thursday, a division bench of the High Court finally gave the go-ahead for the counting of votes.  The YSR Congress had secured 547 ZPTCs out of 553 for which the results were declared. In MPTCs, the count was even more stunning -- 7,284 seats out of the declared 8,083, when last report came in.  A decade old YSR Congress won up to 74 of the 75 municipalities and nagar panchayats in the state and secured all 12 municipal corporations in the recently held polls.

The party credits its dream run to the welfare initiatives undertaken by Reddy's government. It also cites the continuous efforts towards the welfare of women, backward communities, and minorities as a reason for its electoral success.