The rout of Congress in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday was the highlight of the Assembly-poll results for 11 seats across five States.
The Congress paid a heavy price for its dilly-dallying on the demand for a separate Telangana state as the party was routed in the State Assembly bypolls. The Congress lost all the seven Assembly seats, six of them in Telangana region as pro-Telangana candidates swept the bypolls. While Telangana Rashtra Samiti won four seats, the BJP one seat and another was bagged by a pro-Telangana Independent candidate Nagam Janardhan Reddy.
More bad news for the ruling party came from coastal Andhra where the lone by-election was won emphatically by the YSR Congress party of Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy.
Like Congress, Telugu Desam also suffered a debilitating defeat in all the seven constituencies and some of its candidates could not save their deposits. The TDP had also failed to come out with a clear stand on the Telangana demand.
The by-elections were necessitated mostly by the resignation of sitting MLAs in support of Telangana state. One seat, Mehbubnagar — fell vacant because of the death of sitting Independent member Rajeshwar Reddy and Kovvur seat in Nellore district of Andhra region fell vacant as sitting TDP member resigned from the party and Assembly to join Jagan’s party.
Celebrations erupted at the TRS headquarters in Hyderabad as news of its victory came from four districts. Interestingly none of these seats belonged to the TRS. The sitting members of Congress and the TDP had resigned from Assembly and parties and joined the TRS to fight the by elections on the Telangana plank.
TRS candidate Jogu Ramanna, who was earlier with TDP, won Adilabad seat with 31,396 votes.
Gampa Govardhan, who quit the TDP to contest as TRS candidate, won Kamareddy seat in Nizamabad with a huge margin of 44,465 votes.
In Station Ghanpur (Warangal district), T Rajaiah, who was earlier with the Congress, won the seat with a majority of 32638 votes.
In Kollapur the former Minister Jupally Krishna Rao, who had quit the Cabinet and the Congress, to seek re-election as TRS nominee won with a majority of 15,024 votes, against great odds.
With these victories the total strength of the TRS in the State Assembly has gone up to 16.
The lone discordant note for the TRS came from Mehbubnagar where its nominee Syed Ibraheem lost to the BJP candidate Srinivasulu Reddy with a narrow margin of 1,897. The Congress and the TDP were reduced to third and fourth position. Both the TRS and the BJP had fought the by-election on Telangana plank.
In Nagarkurnool constituency of Mehbubnagar district, former veteran Telugu Desam leader Nagam Janardhan Reddy won as Independent candidate on Telangana plank. He too had quit the TDP and Assembly in protest against the ambiguous stand of TDP president Chandrababu Naidu on Telangana state demand. Supported by TRS, Nagam retained his Assembly seat with a margin of 27,825.
Apart from suffering a sever blow in Telangana, the Congress also faced a similar debacle in Andhra and Rayal Seema region. Making an electoral debut outside Kadapa district, the YSR Congress bagged the Kovvur constituency of Nellore district. [Daily Pioneer]