Reddy answer to anti-incumbency

HYDERABAD: For Congress chief minister Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy, who has recaptured power in Hyderabad and helped the party bag significant Lok Sabha seats, the hard work has just begun.

The Kadapa Tiger has to put together a credible team that will continue to push welfare schemes, bring state finances on track and revive investments in a state, once ranked as the second-best investment destination after Gujarat.

Companies and realtors, perceived to be close to the powers that be, will be watched closely by his rival and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president Nara Chandrababu Naidu and his team of 92 legislators.

Over 5.6-crore voters gave the astute politician YSR a clear mandate, sending Naidu back to the Opposition. YSR won for the fifth time from Pulivendula in Kadapa district while Naidu was re-elected for the sixth time from Kuppam in Kadapa district. All other parties including Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) led by actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi,
the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, the Left and the BJP were decimated.

The Congress bagged 33 Lok Sabha seats against 29 in 2004. The winners include Cabinet minister Jaipal Reddy from Chevella, YSR���s son Jagan Mohan Reddy from Kadapa and minister of state for health Panabaka Lakshmi. Prominent losers were Union minister Renuka Chowdhury from Khammam and TDP MP Yerran Naidu from Srikakulam.

But the party���s wins in the assembly segments paled in comparison to its stellar performance in the Lok Sabha constituencies. It managed to cross the half-way mark with 157 seats as against 185 in 2004, thanks to the Reddy community, minority Muslims, women and backward castes. Ten state ministers, state Congress president D Srinivas and Speaker Suresh Reddy lost their seats. Most of the losses were in Telangana. The Congress��� loss was TDP���s gain. It wrested 93 seats against 45 in 2004 and will send six MPs to the Lok Sabha. The TRS won only two Lok Sabha and ten assembly seats. The PRP was worse off, failing to open an account in the Lok Sabha. Its score in the assembly was a modest 18.

Naidu, who led the grand-alliance or Mahakutami hoping to oust YSR, will have time to introspect on his poll gimmicks including the promise of cash-doles and his party���s allegiance to the Third Front. The man who saw himself as the CEO of Andhra Pradesh during his nine-year tenure up to 2004 will not play a major role in national politics either.

With Naidu���s ally���the TRS���in the periphery, the promise of statehood for Telangana will also be a distant dream now. But this could favour the depressed realty market. Chiranjeevi, who pollsters projected as a potential kingmaker, could find Tollywood a safer bet than contesting for assembly polls. He lost from Palakollu in West Godavari, with the Kapu community voting for the TDP and the Congress. But having won an assembly seat from Tirupati, Chiranjeevi will have a chance to rub shoulders with Naidu in the Opposition.