HYDERABAD, 27 September 2005 — The ruling Congress party swept the polls in 107 municipalities and municipal corporations in Andhra Pradesh.
The counting of votes in the polls held on Sept. 24 was taken up yesterday morning in 106 civic bodies.
The Congress bagged 74 out of the 98 municipalities and nine out of 10 municipal corporations. Telugu Desam Party came a poor second with just 10 municipalities in its kitty. Telangana Rashtra Samithi bagged only two municipalities. No single party secured a clear majority in 10 municipalities and one municipal corporation. However, the BJP failed to open its account.
The TRS drew a blank in eight out of nine Telangana districts while the TDP could not win a single civic body in a dozen districts in coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana regions, including Chittoor, the home district of TDP boss and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
The Congress made a clean sweep of the municipalities in most of the districts, including Kadapa, the native district of Chief Minister Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy.
Elated over the victories scored by the party, AP Congress Committee President K. Keshav Rao thanked the people for giving it a massive mandate in the civic bodies. He attributed the “excellent showing” of the party to the 16-month-rule Congress rule under Chief Minister Reddy after the TDP was routed in the 2004 assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
The civic poll outcome has come as a great disappointment to TDP boss Naidu was hoping to cash in on “Congress misrule, corruption and breach of assembly poll promises.”
