The recently concluded elections to gram panchayats in Andhra Pradesh four phases resulted in claims and counter-claims by the ruling YSR Congress party and the opposition Telugu Desam Party.
Though the elections were held on non-party basis, both the parties have claimed that they had grabbed majority of the gram panchayats.
The YSRC has claimed that the candidates supported by the party had bagged a little more than 80 per cent of the gram panchayats.
On the other hand, the TDP has claimed that it has won more than 40 per cent of the gram panchayats and could give a tough fight to the YSRC, despite the advantages associated with the ruling party.
The TDP leaders even burst crackers to “celebrate” their victory, which was ridiculed by the YSRC leaders, who challenged the opposition party to name the gram panchayats it had won.
So far so good. What is surprising is that even Jana Sena Party has also claimed that it has grabbed 27 per cent of the gram panchayats and gave the ruling party a run for its money in several villages. It even said it stood second in many gram panchayats.
In a tweet, Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan has claimed that the candidates backed by his party had won 1,209 sarpanch posts, 1,576 upa-sarpanch posts and 4,456 wards.
“In all, our party has won 27 per cent of the gram panchayats,” the party tweeted officially.
It further said the Jana Sena had won 36 per cent of votes in East and West Godavari districts and 32 per cent in Krishna and Guntur districts.
“In majority of the gram panchayats in these districts, Jana Sena stood in the second position,” the party said.
Well, nobody would have raised any objection had Pawan said Jana Sena had won 50 per cent of the gram panchayats.
Why should he be so moderate to restrict the figure to only 27 per cent?
