HYDERABAD, 28 April 2004 — Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is poised to lose power, according to exit polls on half-a-dozen TV channels soon after the polling ended for the second and final phase of simultaneous state assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state.
Almost all the exit polls predicted heavy losses for the Telugu Desam-BJP alliance in the state. Some of them, however, differed on the exact magnitude of the expected losses for the ruling alliance.
This is certainly bad news for BJP-led National Democratic Alliance which was hoping to retain power at the center by banking on the TDP-BJP combine’s performance in Andhra Pradesh.
The exit polls showed that an anti-incumbency wave against TDP-BJP alliance would help the Congress-led opposition front (that includes Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the two left parties) to regain power in the state after a gap of almost nine and a half years.
According to NDTV exit poll, the Congress and its allies are poised for a near total sweep of the Lok Sabha seats with their tally of 35, leaving only six to TDP-BJP alliance and one seat (Hyderabad) to others (Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen). The Congress alliance, thus, stands to wrest 30 seats from TDP-BJP combine. The 2004 poll would mark the total reversal of 1999 elections wherein TDP bagged 29 seats and BJP seven, leaving five seats to Congress and one to MIM.
