Hyderabad, May 14:Describing it as a “bad day” for the Congress, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy today said the by-elections to the Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula Assembly constituencies were won by YSR Congress party on sympathy factor.
Reacting to the Kadapa by-poll results at a press conference at the Secretariat late tonight, the Chief Minister said: “It is a bad day for us. Today is bad, tomorrow things will change. It’s a peculiar situation where a lot of sympathy is there. We need not take this result very seriously.”
Kiran noted that Jagan and Vijayalakshmi succeeded in getting the sympathy vote transferred in their favour.
It’s the greatness of democracy where voters cast their votes according to their will. People of Kadapa and Pulivendula have shown their respect towards YSR in the form of votes in the by-elections. But YSR became a tall leader only because of the Congress party,” he said.
He, however, said the Congress would respect the people’s verdict.
Kiran, in reply to a question, asserted that there was no threat to his government because of Jagan’s victory.
“There is no threat to any government. We are very strong. We will go to 2014 elections much stronger. What was destined to happen has happened,” he observed.
He noted the by-elections as a single issue that passes away which could not be taken as a yardstick for Congress’ strength.
“It doesn’t happen like that,” Kiran remarked when questioned about the possibility of some Congress MLAs switching sides to Jagan following his stupendous victory.
“India may be the world champion in one-day cricket but it lost to teams like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Victory and defeat are natural in politics and sports and we can learn lessons from each defeat and take corrective steps to strengthen ourselves,” the Chief Minister said.
He referred to the case of Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao who won the Lok Sabha elections in Karimnagar in 2004 by a convincing margin.
“In the by-elections after his first resignation, KCR got a majority of two lakh votes and the next time it fell to just 15,000. In 2009, the Congress won the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat by 50,000 vote margin,” he pointed out.
Kiran refused to hold anyone responsible for the Congress’ humiliating loss in the by-elections.
It was a by-election for just one out of 294 Assembly seats and one out of 542 Lok Sabha seats. We need not hold anyone responsible for the defeat,” he added.
———————PTI —————————