The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) lost seven seats in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections because it fell short of a mere 50,000 votes. The silver lining for the TDP is that its voteshare has gone up by nearly one and a half per cent. But this is nothing compared to the BJP which has stolen the vote pie in AP. The party not only surprised everybody by winning 4 seats but also by polling 18.53% of vote (up from nearly six per cent in 1996). This means that it has become almost the third alternative and people are willing to test it.

The number of Assembly segments, where the TDP got the majority of the votes, has dwindled considerably. It had won as many as 225 seats in the 1994 Assembly elections. Today it is down to coughing up a majority only in 98 seats. If the present trend continues, the TDP's performance in the next Assembly elections will be as bad as that of the Congress in 1996.

The Congress which has retained 22 Lok Sabha seats, has also a cause for concern in the Assembly segments. In 1996, it had a majority in 148 seats. This time it is down to 137 Assembly segments.

Here again the BJP is the clear winner. The party, which has only three members in the Assembly, has got a majority in 33 segments. This means it is all set to emerge as a major state player. The increasing popularity of the BJP is not due to its communal or religious appeal ... Given that nobody wanted elections, its slogan of able leader and stable government caught on. Pcople were also heard talking about giving it an opportunity at least.

The TDP's two Leftist allies, CPI and CPI(M) have more or less retained their share of popular votes. But the CPI(M) has lost its only seat, Khammam, to the Congress. The CPI has retained both Nalgonda and Bhadrachalan. The CPI has increased its vote percentage  from 2.3% in 1996 to 2.5% this time. But the CPI(M)'s vote share has gone down from 2.91% in 1996 to 2.88%.

But it is the TDP (NTR), led by Lakshmi Parvathi, has suffered the most. The party, which had won nearly 10.5% of vote last time is now down to mere 1.2% as it contested only three seats. It came sccond only in the Srikakulam constituency, behind the ruling TDP. While the BJP has benefited considerably by entering into an alliance with it, Parvathi has not got much in exchange.

Another interesting aspect of the Lok Sabha results is the way that TDP and Congress have snatched each other's seats. The Congress has wrested the TDP seats of Ankapailly, Nasrapur, Eluru, Machilpatnam, Tenali, Bapatla, Narsaraopeta, Hindupur and Nagarkunool. it also snatched Khammam from CPI(M), the TDP ally.

The TDP on the other hand has wrested seven seats  which were thought to be Congress citadels. They include Parvatipuram, Amalapuram, Mahbubnagar (wrested by TDP's ally Janata Dal), Nizamabad, Peddapally (SC), Siddipeta (SC) and Hanamkonda. The BJP seems to have eaten into both. it wrested two seas, Rajahmundry and Secunderabad, from the Congress and Karimnagar and Kakinada from the TDP.

It finished second in Nalgonda and Medak, the first CPI stronghold and the second a Congress bastion. ...                                                                                        (The Pioneer, New Delhi)