The polling day began in Tirupati with the TDP making serious allegations against the YCP on the issue of outsiders and fake voters. The Congress also started attacking the YCP on this issue. These parties say that the outsiders arrived in tourist buses from the Rayalaseema districts. They were camping in the function halls and buildings belonging to the YCP leaders in the temple town and also in other parts of the parliamentary segment.

On their part, the BJP-Jana Sena leaders have remained silent. Till yesterday, the BJP ran the campaign by targeting the TDP and the YCP equally. On the other hand, the TDP leaders are blaming the election authorities and the police for not taking any action against the outsiders illegally entering the polling booths. The Tirupati SP is not responding to the Opposition complaints and there has been no required police presence in the troublesome areas.

Congress nominee Chinta Mohan has gone a step ahead, saying that the YCP has brought outsiders from Kadapa, Anantapur, Kurnool and such places. These outsiders are illegally casting the votes of local people. The Chief Minister and the Ministers are involved in this illegal activity.

Going by the serious concerns, the TDP and the Congress seemed to have lost hopes on positive polling for them. No wonder, the YCP nominee would get more votes than expected.

The election campaign has come to an end and the battlelines are finally drawn for the Tirupati by-election. It is just one more day for the polling. The YSRCP is trying hard to retain the seat. The TDP, the BJP and the Congress are making their best efforts to defeat YCP nominee Dr. Gurumurthy. The two national parties, the BJP and the Congress, have failed to make much progress in the initial stages of campaigning itself.

As a result, the main fight now appears to be between the YCP and the TDP. The ruling party and the main opposition party are locked in a near battle royal. Over eight to nine Ministers are camping in the assembly segments assigned to them to ensure the victory of Dr. Gurumurthy. The YCP’s sole focus is on winning the seat with a good majority with a tight grip over the voters through the volunteers.

CM Jagan Reddy has cancelled his election meeting and wrote letters to the voters. The volunteers have handed over these letters to all the voters. On its part, the TDP had Chandrababu Naidu and Nara Lokesh taking part in a hectic campaign for over a week. They highlighted the Government’s failures, the unresolved Viveka murder case, the increasing State debts and the CM’s anti-people policies.

The YCP has first aimed at 3 to 5 lakh majority but now the situation has turned tough. Analysts say that the YCP may get less than one lakh majority. If it got less than 50,000 majority, then it is a vote against the Jagan regime.

The battle lines are drawn for the April 17 Tirupati bypoll. There will be no big rallies, no massive public meetings and no hype on road shows. This time, the whole focus is on door to door campaigns aimed at having a personal touch with the voters at the individual level.

Both the YCP and the TDP have chosen to put spotlight on the micro level management of the voters. Already, the ruling YCP has huge support from the volunteers network. Each volunteer is assigned around 50 families which means they will be having full details about nearly 200 voters. In the local body elections, the YCP leaders used volunteers effectively to keep a close watch on the voters mood and to make sure they vote for their party.

Faced with no alternative, the TDP has been forced to develop a strong system for itself to counter the impact of the volunteers on the voters. As such, the whole TDP leadership put special focus on reviving and activating booth committees. Each committee is assigned the task of covering over 100 families. What more, the booth committees will also visit each voter’s family about 10 times to raise awareness on over ten topics.

While the YCP and the TDP are focusing on village and ward level management of election, the BJP and the Jana Sena are still banking on star campaigners like Pawan Kalyan, Bandi Sanjay, etc.