Political strategist Prashant Kishor has predicted a massive defeat for Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSR Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh. He said the ruling party would lose the assembly elections as it can only win 51 seats. He made this prediction on May 12, a day before the Lok Sabha and assembly elections in the state.
"Jagan Mohan Reddy got a historic mandate in 2019. I have been saying that for the last few months, Jagan is headed for a massive defeat as he will be reduced to just 51 seats. The reverse will happen this time. I can not go into details as elections are happening. This is my assessment,” Prashant Kishor said while speaking to RTV, a Telugu digital website.
During the interview, RTV projected that in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections, the ruling YSRCP would win 67 seats, while the TDP and BJP alliance would secure 106 seats. Similarly, for the 25 Lok Sabha seats, the digital site predicted 15 seats for the TDP and 8 seats for the YSRCP. In total, Andhra Pradesh has 175 seats.
On what went wrong with CM Jagan, Prashant said, "From a historic victory to losing in such a way, there can not be a single mistake. He must have made a series of mistakes. First look at his mother and sister, they are both against him. Those who worked so hard for him in 2019 have now stood against him. That itself is dangerous and speaks volumes about how he operated in the last five years. He treated himself like a King, not like a democratically elected leader. He completely ignored the aspirations of the people. Welfare without aspirations has got no meaning."
Prashant further said that Jagan has always betrayed those who stood for him. "He was making a deal with TDP back then. If we would not have helped in 2019, he would have never won the election then," the political strategist, who led YSRCP's campaign in the last assembly elections, said.
In the last assembly elections, the YSRCP had swept the state by bagging 151 of 175 assembly seats with 49.95 per cent vote share. The TDP, which had won 102 seats in 2014, was reduced to just 23.
Voting for 175 assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats was held today (May 13).