Congress assures of recovering Karnataka loss in Andhra Pradesh by-polls

New Delhi, May 28 : A day ahead of Andhra Pradesh by-elections to four Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly seats, Congress leader M Veerappa Moily said that the loss faced by his party in Karnataka Assembly polls will be recovered in Andhra Pradesh.

Moily, who is in charge of Andhra Pradesh said: "We will definitely make up in these elections. It cannot be like Karnataka. The polls are absolutely localized."

But the Congress seems to be hovering in the shadows in Andhra Pradesh, with the Telengana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS), a former ally and partner in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, leading the charge from the front. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is not far behind.

Deputy General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) Sudhakar Reddy said, "There is a possibility of a split in the TDP in the by-elections. A section within the party supporting Telengana may form a separate party. And this too will impact assembly and parliament elections next year." Andhra Pradesh Government has tightened security for the by-polls with over 63,000 policemen, including Armed Reserve Police personnel, have been deployed on election duty, Director General of Police (DGP) SSP Yadav told reporters in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

He informed that a total of 965 villages have been identified as hyper-sensitive, 1,683 as sensitive and 1,025 as extremist-affected and inaccessible villages out of the 4,965 villages in the constituencies going to polls.

Besides providing 800 cellphones to senior-level police officers and 5,558 Very High Frequency sets to facilitate uninterrupted radio communication to the police personnel on election duty, 958 mobile teams, 302 striking forces and 148 special striking forces have been set up, he said.

Yadav said 508 cases of pre-election troubles have been registered so far in the districts where by-elections are being held out of which 123 cases were booked for violation of the election code, 33 for pre-poll violence and 352 registered under enforcement work.

"We have information that some Naxalites who had surrendered, have joined political parties and working for them. As free citizens they have freedom. Police will not interfere unless there is a problem," he added.

Except Therlam Assembly constituency which is in Vizianagaram Coastal District, the four Lok Sabha and 17 Assembly constituencies are in Telangana region.

ANI