Major Parties Jittery: Early Polls To Loksabha In AP

By M H Ahssan / Hyderabad

The Congress High Command appears to be thinking of de-linking state Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. According to indications, the party is planning early elections to the Lok Sabha, while holding the Assembly elections in states including Andhra Pradesh as per schedule. Elections are due to the state Assembly and Lok Sabha in May next year. 

However, Congress High Command is reportedly planning to hold Lok Sabha elections in November itself. This new turn has caused worry to the main political parties in the state. While other national parties like BJP, CPI and CPI(M) do not have big stakes in the state, the main players, TDP, TRS and YSR Congress appear to be worried about the prospect of facing early elections to the Lok Sabha. The fear is particularly seen in the TDP and the YSR Congress as both the parties are hoping to come to power in the state. 
The parties also hope to win maximum number of Lok Sabha seats and have a major say in the formation of the government at the centre. Congress leaders appears to be thinking that it would be to its advantage if elections to the Parliament were held separately. The party’s strategists feel that it would be better to have the Lok abha elections earlier so that it could concentrate better and win more seats. The party feels that local problems and anti-incumbency factors which generally influence the voters would not affect the party’s chances in the Lok sabha polls, if held separately. 

Congress party is of the view that the seats it would get in AP would be key to form the government at the centre. It wants to use separate strategies for the Assembly and the Lok Sabha polls. Both the YSR Congress and the TDP are hoping to come to power. While TDP would be banking on its contention that he party chief Chandra Babu Naidu was a better administrator, the YSR Congress would be chiefly banking on the public sympathy it has. Both the parties would also depend on the anti-incumbency factor. However it would be actually advantageous to these parties if Assembly and Parliament elections were held simultaneously as half of their campaign would be on the failure of the government. 

The failure of the government would form 50 percent of the winning chances of these parties and the remaining 50 percent would be on what they could do to the people. If the elections were de-linked, then they would have to use the same factors twice. But by the time they go to Assembly elections, anti-incumbency would be an already used weapon. Moreover, if people vote either of the parties it would be on the strength of what they could do in the state. 

When it comes to Parliament, the anti-incumbency factor might not work, as people would be voting to elect the central government and not the state. This way they lose the advantage of winning more Lok Sabha seats. This sudden change in the strategy of the Congress is worrying both the parties. However, for TRS which has a single point agenda – achieving Telangana, de-linking might not matter much. 

This is the only party which has neither to criticize the government for its non-performance, nor tell the people the development it would achieve. All it has to say is that it would achieve Telangana for either Parliament or Assembly elections. This way the party is less disadvantaged than the rest.