As Andhra Pradesh votes tomorrow, how a resurgent TDP is hoping to dislodge Jagan Mohan Reddy

Having lost five years ago, G Harish Balayogi, the 33-year-old son of former Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi, is testing his luck for the second time from the Amalapuram Lok Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh. Unlike 2019, there is a spring in the TDP candidate’s step and that is down to the alliance with the BJP.

Amalapuram in the newly created Konaseema district in central Andhra is an example of how TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, who appeared down and out last year, is hoping to consolidate anti-incumbency votes across the state where Lok Sabha and Assembly polls will be held on Monday. With rural voters seemingly backing Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, largely because of his government’s welfare schemes, the Opposition NDA alliance of the TDP, BJP and the JanaSena Party (JSP) has its task cut out.

However, the NDA’s ace still is PM Modi’s popularity and it will be hoping that will pay dividends in the urban and semi-urban areas. Though the BJP has little organisational presence in the state, the NDA parties are so confident of their ability of allies to transfer votes among themselves that of the five Lok Sabha seats in the East and West Godavari districts, two have been allotted to the BJP — Naraspuram and Rajahmundry (state BJP chiefD Purandeswari is contesting).

Harish alleges that Amalapuram has been neglected by the YSRCP. “Jagan only concentrated on welfare, but people also want to see some development along with welfare that makes their lives easier. As a Dalit, I also want to work for the uplift of my community in the Konaseema region,” he says.

Ponnada Nageshwar, a timber merchant in the Amalapuram (SC-reserved) Assembly segment, who was vying for a ticket from the JSP, says, “In many constituencies, especially