Results in the 1st and 2nd phases of Panchayat Elections in the State showed a rough picture of status of the political parties.  

As the main opposition party TDP gave tough competition, the ruling party Congress Party could bag only 2283 Panchayats out of 6971.  TDP could get 2169 Panchayats.

The trend also shows where the parties are to focus in order to get through 2014.  But overall picture shows that the Congress and TDP are going neck to neck in the final race of 2014 elections for a photo finish.  Then forming of Government depends on the alliance they get.  If the situation continues this way, other parties will get prominence because their alliance makes a lot of difference.

Now the stand of YSRCP running third in the race is crucial.  If they stand alone they don’t stand anywhere.  But which party will they join will be a point of interest.   They won 1279 Panchayats in the second phase.

TRS bagged 584 Panchayats.   Interestingly Khammam did not vote for TRS in the second phase.

TDP is in majority in Visakhapatnam, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasham, Chittore, Ananthapur and Khammam.  

YSRCP fared well in Prakasham, Kadapa and Chottore, Kurnool and Khammam.

TRS won a maximum of 139 Panchayats in Karimnagar understandably and also Medak but utterly failed in Rangareddy and Nalgonda districts in which Congress and TDP shared equally.  Interestingly Congress party won more Panchayats than TRS in all of the Telangana districts.

Third phase of Panchayat elections will be held on 31st for which the Election Commission has already started making arrangements.  

Now, the crucial point will be the announcement on the issue of the bifurcation of the State.  And that is the reason why Congress Party is not deciding either way- to divide or to keep it united.

(AW-SriJa)