People’s Pulse Survey Agency has come out with an interesting analysis of the SC and ST reserved constituencies of Andhra Pradesh. These are the constituencies YSR Congress are traditionally strong due to the strong penetration of Christian conversions.
In 2019, YSR Congress won 27 out of the total 29 SC-reserved constituencies while TDP and Janasena managed one each.
Even in 2014, TDP managed only sixteen while the YSR Congress got thirteen.
People’s Pulse Survey says TDP+ is going to put on a strong show this time. The Survey gives nineteen to the TDP and only ten to the YSR Congress. If this survey turns out to be true, it will be game over for YSR Congress.
This pattern indicates the Dalits and Christian vote bank of the YSR Congress is dented to a good extent.
Jagan diverting SC Sub-plan funds, lack of jobs, and unavailability of loans are the factors influencing these voters.
The survey says TDP+ gets a vote share of 51.81% here while YSR Congress is confined only to 42.83%.
Meanwhile, the agency also surveyed the seven ST constituencies across the state.
In 2019, YSR Congress won seven out of the seven constituencies.
In this survey, YSR Congress is expected to win five while TDP+ will win in the remaining two.
It is to be noted that TDP is always weak in the ST-reserved constituencies after the delimitations.
In the 2009 elections and even in the 2014 elections that TDP won, the party managed to win only a single seat.
If we go into the details of the seat-sharing, Janasena is contesting three SC-reserved seats and one ST-reserved seat. BJP is contesting in one SC and one ST seat. TDP is contesting in all the remaining reserved constituencies (30).
The survey also says that Communist parties which are particularly influential in ST-reserved seats via Teachers and Government employees lost the ground completely in the ST-reserved constituencies.
