Pradeep Vennelakanti Tirupati

A sweeping victory for the NDA alliance in Tirupati district has not told the entire electoral story.

A constituency-wise analysis of the ZPTC and MPTC results points to cross-voting, sizable NOTA support, invalid ballots exceeding victory margins in some places and a striking urban-rural divide in voter participation. Tirupati Rural mandal recorded a clear instance of cross-voting, with voters appearing to favour different parties in the MPTC and ZPTC elections. In the MPTC polls, the NDA alliance secured 30,617 votes, accounting for 50.6 percent, against 27,590 votes (45.6 percent) polled by the YSR Congress party. The alliance also won 19 MPTC seats in the mandal.

However, the trend was reversed in the ZPTC election. YSRCP candidate Chevireddy Harshit Reddy secured 41,296 votes (49.5 percent) to defeat NDA alliance candidate Mucheli Dhanalakshmi, who polled 40,733 votes (48.8 percent), by a narrow margin of 563 votes. The contrasting outcomes suggest that a section of voters opted for different parties in the two elections.

Another notable feature was the number of votes polled for NOTA in the MPTC elections. NOTA received 4,641 votes, marginally more than the combined 4,625 votes secured by the Congress and other parties.

Invalid votes also assumed significance in some constituencies, particularly where the winning margins were narrow. In KV Puram, the TDP ZPTC candidate won by 301 votes, while 1,315 votes were declared invalid.

Similarly, in Renigunta, BJP ZPTC candidate secured victory by a margin of 337 votes, against 942 invalid votes.

Polling percentages revealed a marked difference between areas on the outskirts of Tirupati and remote rural mandals. Tirupati Rural recorded some of the lowest polling figures in the district. Avilala-2 MPTC registered just 37.3 percent polling, followed by Gandhipuram at 40.6 percent and Srinivasapuram at 41.7 percent.

In contrast, remote villages witnessed significantly higher voter participation. Graddagunta in Tada mandal recorded the highest polling percentage at 87.4 percent, followed by Sripuram in Dakkili mandal at 86.1 percent and Kasimitta in Narayanavanam mandal at 85.7 percent. At the district level, the NDA alliance secured 3,18,217 votes in the MPTC elections, accounting for 53.4 percent of the total, and won 205 seats.

The YSRCP polled 2,42,799 votes (40.7 percent) and secured 85 seats. Independents received 25,559 votes and won 12 seats.

The alliance maintained its lead in the ZPTC elections as well, securing 3,98,568 votes (52.5 percent) and winning 24 seats. The YSRCP received 3,30,864 votes (43.6 percent) and won six seats. Independents secured one seat with 17,678 votes. Other parties failed to win any seats in either election.