Andhra Pradesh   

Congress retains Vizag Assembly seat

Staff Reporter

Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao wins with big margin

VISAKHAPATNAM: Congress nominee Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao romped home to victory with a comfortable margin of 14,150 votes over his nearest Telugu Desam rival in the byelection to the Visakhapatnam -I Assembly seat for which counting was held on Thursday.

In a bypoll marked by poor voter turnout, Mr. Srinivasa Rao polled 34,886 votes against 20,176 by Telugu Desam's S.A. Rehman. BJP candidate S. Kasi Viswanadha Raju and 11 others, including one each from the BSP and NCP, forfeited their deposits.

The byelection was caused by the death of Dronamraju Satyanarayana, Srinivasa Rao's father. Polling held earlier on February 19 was countermanded following an Election Commission probe into violations of the model code of conduct.

Srinivasa Rao (45) had unsuccessfully fought the Assembly elections twice from Pendurthy constituency in 1995 and 1999. With the rank and file of the Congress party behind him this time, the city Congress president had a smooth sailing the third time around. The campaign lasted a record 100 days.

The Congress nominee consistently maintained a lead from the first round till the ninth and final round with the margins varying from 1,178 to a maximum of 2,113. TDP's Rehman left the counting centre in the Andhra University Gymnasium as soon as the first round counting was over. The BJP, which had fielded a novice and ran a high profile campaign, finished a poor third by polling mere 1,499 votes.

Speaking to reporters, Mr. Srinivasa Rao described the victory as a gift to Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy for the developmental programmes taken up by his Government, and vowed to continue the work of his late father.

He thanked Minister for Commercial Taxes Konathala Ramakrishna for coordinating leaders at various levels and leading the campaign and the partymen for their cooperation.

In Hyderabad, Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy said the mandate was in favour of his policies.

The vilification campaign by the Telugu Desam Party had not worked.

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