2009 Poll Prospects And Alignments

[ramana]

From Deccan Chronicle, 26 july 2007

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->‘TD is No.1 T-party’
 

Hyderabad, July 25: A confidential survey conducted by the Telugu Desam shows that the party was still lurking behind the Congress in regions other than Telangana. <b>It has however re-emerged as a major force in Telangana and was the ‘single largest party’ with a vote share of 41 per cent, said the survey.</b>
This is rather ironic, since the TD stands for the united state and is not in favour of a separate Telangana.

If the survey is to be believed, <b>a TD-CPI-CPM combination would be deadly and would be able to trounce the Congress in Telangana. “Our agitations over people’s issues have definitely improved our support in the Telangana districts,”</b> said TD leader Devender Goud. “The TD stirs on bidi packets and Babli construction have paid off.” <b>But the scenario is rather bleak in the Andhra region, where the TD has still not gained lost ground.</b>

Only in the East and West Godavari districts does it come anywhere near the Congress in terms of people’s support. <b>But the bad news is from Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore, Chittoor districts, which are still stoutly behind the Congress with a vote share of 75 per cent.</b>  The TD could get only about 25 per cent vote share in Guntur and Prakasam. Even Chittor, which is TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu’s home district, is under the grip of the Congress.

<b>In Rayalaseema, the picture is mixed.</b> It is the TD all the way in Anantapur. At the same time in Kadapa, the home district of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, TD is limited to 15 per cent leaving 85 per cent to the Congress. Kurnool too is dominated by the Congress, but the TD has slightly improved since the last polls. But in Chittor, it is as disastrous as it was in 2004 for the TD.

<b>In North Coastal Andhra region the situation is still in favour of Congress party except in Visakhapatnam district, where large number of voters are moving towards the TD.</b> A team of researchers belonging to two universities in Rayalaseema were engaged in the survey which was held between June 10 and July 5 across the state. TD sources said that more than 18,000 samples from 210 assembly constituencies were collected and analysed.

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There is a Arun Nehru article in Pioneer and PC Alexander op-ed in Deccan Chronicle, on same subject. So it is not too early to discuss the issues and prospects. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->