The sole opposition in Andhra Pradesh, the YSR Congress party (YSRCP) got the shock of their life when their famous candidate lost by 34 votes in their home turf of Kadappa. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) nominees won the three seats in Kadappa, Kurnool and SPS Nellore, all strongholds of YSR Congress.
With this, the TDP has won all the nine legislative councils in the biennial elections from the Local Authorities Constituencies (LACs). The elections were held on March 17, counting of which took place on Monday.
Losing the Kadappa seat was probably the most bitter pill for the YSRCP, since the candidate was Jagamohan's uncle Y.S.Vivekananda Reddy, who has previously been an MP, MLA and an MLC. This seat has been the stronghold of the Reddy family for over sixty years. The TDP candidate B.Ravi won over Vivekananda Reddy by a mere 34 votes.
The YSRCP claims that the TDP spent Rs. 200 crores to win this seat.
The elections were held in nine constituencies and this was necessitated because the term of the legislative councillors are coming to an end on March 29 and May 1. The TDP made a clean sweep of all the nine MLC seats (local bodies), bringing the total to 15. The party had won the remaining six seats, namely Srikakulam, East Godavari, West Godavari (two seats), Chittoor, Anantapur unanimously.
