Kadapa, March 24: The victory of Chadipiralla Narayana Reddy backed by YSR Congress Party as Kadapa MLC Local Authorities Constituency with a margin of 10 votes on Wednesday comes as a morale booster for former MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy and his new party in his native Kadapa district.
Joint Collector and Returning Officer K. Nirmala declared Mr. Narayana Reddy elected with a margin of 10 votes and handed over the declaration form to him in the presence of Election Observer K. Chandramouli at the counting centre on Government College for Men premises in Kadapa. Mr. Narayana Reddy was earlier declared elected but recounting of votes was done on the demand of Congress candidate. Both Congress and YSR Congress groups ensured that their voters had marked a single option in the ballot papers.
Out of a total of 623 voters in Kadapa district, 621 cast their votes with only two abstentions from CPI members. Four votes were declared invalid by Joint Collector and Returning Officer K. Nirmala. Mr. Narayana Reddy secured 314 votes and Mr. Varadarajulu Reddy got 304 votes. The counting officials found a Re. 1 currency note in the ballot box when they emptied it for counting.
The defeat of the Congress candidate and former MLA N. Varadarajulu Reddy came as a jolt for the ruling party particularly as Minister for Housing Kanna Lakshminarayana, who is Minister in-charge of Kadapa district and three Ministers of the district – Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy, D.L. Ravindra Reddy and Mohd. Ahmedullah – and Twenty Point Programme Implementation Committee Chairman N. Thulasi Reddy made hectic efforts by visiting Telugu Desam Party offices and TDP leaders’ houses and solicited support of their members giving rise to allegations of a nexus and “match-fixing” between Congress and TDP. Joint Collector examined the votes polled and counting was undertaken in the presence of the Observer, District Revenue Officer Hemasagar, RDOs and counting staff. Mr. Varadarajulu Reddy left the counting hall in a dejected mood after declaration of the result. Minister for Agriculture Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy left Pulivendula MPDO office to his residence in Pulivendula after the result was declared.
-Agencies