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Cross voting indicates impending danger for Congress

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Cross voting indicates impending danger for Congress
Cross voting indicates impending danger for Congress

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy received a ‘jolt’ due to the cross-voting in the Legislative Council elections with as many as 25 Congress Legislators owing allegiance to former Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy voted at will, disregarding the Whip issued by the party.

Though Mr Jaganmohan Reddy has parted ways with the Congress and formed his own political outfit, these 25 Legislators, though still retaining the Congress tag have been sailing with the YSR Congress Party.
The Council elections provided enough evidence that the Chief Minister has no control over these 25 Legislators. If indications are to be taken, more Legislators are expected to follow them. How and when is quite intriguing.
The worst affected in the just concluded polls was TRS. Its MLA ranks were in disarray. As seen, the TRS could not materialise win of a single member Mahmood Ali who polled just 11 votes, tasting defeat.
Rumours were afloat strongly that TRS and Mr Jaganmohan Reddy had reached an understanding. These rumours remained just that, rumours. Apparently Mr Jagamohan Reddy had no room to accommodate the TRS in.

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MIM candidate Altaf Hyder Rizvi was seen to be the favourite of the Jagan-group. Altaf Rizvi remained on top securing 36 preferential votes with the help of the Jagan-group which cleared the view that the rebel leader had almost set aside any support for TRS or its chief.
When the 25 Legislators met Mr Jaganmohan Reddy in a conclave prior to the polling, they obviously decided on a perfect operation to embarrass the Congress.

That was their aim as the N Kiran Kumar Reddy government in turn embarrassed Mr Jaganmohan Reddy on the Floor of the House.
Now further with the government making an attempt on Monday to announce their policy to address the problem, land allocations made during YSR regime , the Jaganmohan Reddy factor may prove deadly to the government.

Indications are that Mr Jaganmohan Reddy is seized of the matter.
Meanwhile with five of its candidates winning in the Council elections, the Congress is gloating, but what is in store later is not reckoned, according to a source.
On the other hand, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu also faced some embarrassing moments with the defeat of their member Prathiba Bharathi.

Twelve candidates were in the fray for the 10 seats to the Council from the Assembly quota,
elections for which were held yesterday.
The TDP made frantic efforts for another round of counting as a last minute trial for their candidate, but the Election Commission overruled the Telugu Desam Party.
It turned down the TDPs demand for a recount of second preference votes.
On the other hand, the Congress strategists maintained that they had successfully countered the threat MLAs forming the Jagan group by allotting those votes to the minority
candidates of the Congress combine.

Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy said ‘we had designed the vote pattern in such a way that had they voted against Congress, the Jagan group could have been dubbed as anti-
minority.”
This may have paid off for the Congress with former  speaker  Pratibha Bharati getting trounced in the final outcome and the dark horse  Mohammed Jani of Congress, a former deputy chairman of the council who had got only  17 of the allocated  27 votes from the Assembly segment winning after a pitched battle in the final round .
“Our foresighted allocation of third preference votes to Jani paid off dividends, though nine to ten MLA’s allocated to him cross votes in the first round,” said the Chief Minister.

He may be grinning now, but from the defiance shown by the 25 Legislators of the Congress is a sure sign that danger is lurking round the corner for the party.