The Hindu : Front Page : Congress wins Tekkali seat

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Tuesday, Sep 15, 2009
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Congress wins Tekkali seat

Staff Reporter

Korle Bharathi wins by a modest margin of 7,173 votes

SRIKAKULAM/HYDERABAD: The Congress won the Tekkali Assembly seat in Srikakulam district by a majority of margin of 7,173 votes over the Telugu Desam, a margin considered modest, given the expectation that the ruling party would hugely benefit from the sympathy generated by the death of former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

Congress candidate Korle Bharathi polled 59,250 votes against 52,077 votes of her TDP rival Kinjarapu Atchan Naidu, while Praja Rajyam’s D. Sreenivasa Rao forfeited his deposit as he could manage only 17,258 votes. The Lok Satta Party fared poorly winning around 1,200 votes.

The bypoll was necessitated by the demise of Ms. Bharathi’s husband, K. Revathipathy, just a day before he was to take oath in the Assembly. In effect, the Congress candidate had a “double sympathy” going in her favour. By retaining the seat, the Congress party’s strength in the 294-member Assembly is now 155, while Rajasekhara Reddy’s Pulivendula Assembly seat lies vacant.

Although the victory margin of the Congress has improved from 1,818 votes in April/May to 7,173 votes, now Congress leaders admit that the majority was not to their anticipation, considering that Rajasekhara Reddy died in the midst of the election campaign. No top leader of the Congress and the TDP, including the latter’s president N. Chandrababu Naidu, campaigned in the byelections though the former Chief Minister’s son, Jaganmohan Reddy, issued an appeal to voters to support the Congress as a tribute to his father.

The Praja Rajyam was the biggest loser in the election as the votes polled by it partly plummeted from 36,552 to 17,258 now. PR president K. Chiranjeevi declared in the Assembly that the party would not contest, but later decided to field Mr. Srinivasa Rao and even campaigned for a day.

Both Congress and the TDP have gained at the PR’s expense. While the Congress polled 11,737 more votes than in the general elections, the TDP improved its tally by 6,457. The Congress neutralised the influence of the Kinjarapu brothers in their strongholds of Kotabommali and Santhabommali mandals.

Chief Minister K. Rosaiah described it as triumph for AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Rajasekhara Reddy.

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