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Congress sweeps ZP byelections

Special Correspondent

— PHOTO: UPPU DAMODAR

HANDSOME WIN: Atluri Laxman Kumar taking out a victory procession in Karimnagar on Wednesday.

HYDERABAD: Amid serious infighting in the party over the issue of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s successor, the Congress made a clean sweep of the posts of chairman of all the five Zilla Parishads in Andhra Pradesh for which byelections were held on Wednesday.

Its nominees were elected unopposed as chairman of three Zilla Parishads - Vizianagaram, West Godavari and Kurnool - while they won without much difficulty in Karimnagar and Adilabad, though after a contest. The bylections were caused following the election of the incumbents as MLAs and MP.

Mr. A. Venkataswamy, who was backed by Kurnool MP Kotla Jayasuryaprakash Reddy, was declared elected as chairman of the Kurnool Zilla Parishad, Mr. Bellana Chandrasekhar of Vizianagaram Zilla Parishad and Mr. Meka Seshu Babu from West Godavari. The Congress party enjoys a clear majority in these Zilla Parishads.

In Karimnagar, Atluri Laxman Kumar defeated his TDP rival K. Satyanarayana by 31-19 votes in the 57-member house. Seven members abstained from the election in which six members of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), two of the TDP and one BJP member voted for the Congress candidate for the ZP chairman’s post.

An interesting contest was witnessed in the 52-member strong Adilabad Zilla Parishad where B. Ganapathi, who switched sides from the TDP to the Congress, defeated M. Raju by 27-25 votes. Mr. Raju is a Congress member who received the support of the 14 Telugu Desam members but still could not win.

The election was marked by an exercise in political oneupmanship in Adilabad between Congress MLC Premsagar Rao and former MP A. Indrakaran Reddy. The candidate backed by the MLC managed to wrest the post, in spite of the support extended by 14 Telugu Desam members to M. Raju, who was fielded by the former MP’s group.

In West Godavari, the election of Mr. Sesha Babu has an interesting background. The late YSR had convinced Mr. Babu to withdraw from the contest from Palacole Assembly constituency in favour of Bangaru Usha Rani, the Congress nominee and promised to get him elected as ZP chief. On Wednesday, the promise was fulfilled.

Chief Minister K. Rosaiah and APCC president D. Srinivas said the result was yet another indication of the Congress party’s popularity and credibility.

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