Andhra Wins Civic Polls, Promotes Them To A Referendum
Nine mayoral posts later, Chandrababu Naidu’s government has discovered that streetlights also conduct performance appraisals.
Andhra Pradesh’s ruling alliance has won nine of 13 mayoral posts, 68 of 87 municipal and nagar-panchayat chairperson posts, and 2,535 of 3,942 wards. In Greater Visakhapatnam, it took 98 of 120 wards. That is a substantial victory. It is also, according to the Chandrababu Naidu government’s preferred translation, a statewide certificate declaring its governance excellent, its slogans accurate and perhaps every municipal drain personally satisfied with the Chief Minister.
The campaign, however, arrived with less polished paperwork. The YSRCP alleged blocked nominations and intimidation. The Supreme Court had halted the process after complaints from the opposition. YS Jagan Mohan Reddy alleged that around 70 YSRCP polling agents were barred from booths in Pulivendula, while his party questioned a reported 681 votes under “Others” against an official list said to contain 14 voters in that category. These are allegations, not established findings. The State Election Commission said complaints were being examined and described polling as largely peaceful apart from incidents in some areas. That distinction matters. A result can be decisive without automatically becoming a certificate that every stage before counting was immaculate.
Yet the alliance has taken the civic verdict and inflated it into a referendum on Chandrababu Naidu’s entire administration. “Cheppam, Chestunnam” — we promised, we are delivering — has been wheeled out as though a ward ballot is an audited balance sheet. Nara Lokesh says the mandate is to serve, not celebrate. This is why the winning side has spent days explaining how much it has won. The councillor who promised a drainage line has apparently been promoted to witness the public’s endorsement of state-level governance, investment policy and civilisation itself.
The political trick is familiar: accept the applause, outsource the questions. Complaints about nominations, polling agents and disputed figures are treated as background noise, while the winning tally is treated as a moral verdict. Chandrababu Naidu’s government is entitled to claim victory. It is not entitled to pretend that a municipal election tested everything except the municipal election. This is governance by press release, with the result doing the work of the road, the drain and the ward office.
The alliance won the municipal elections. Chandrababu Naidu still has to govern the municipalities.
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