Srikakulam, September 10: Polling began on a peaceful and brisk note in the byelection to the Tekkali Assembly constituency in Andhra Pradesh this morning.
As many as 20 per cent of an electorate of 1,75,422, cast their votes in the first two hours of polling till 0900 hrs, as women and old people turned up early to exercise their franchise at the 283 polling stations. Electronic Voting Machines in four centres developed snag and election authorities immediately replaced them from the spare EVMs kept ready, official sources said.
Though six candidates were in the fray, the contest is likely to be a triangular between Congress candidate K Bharati, widow of Dr Revathipathi, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) nominee K Atchan Naidu and Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) candidate D Srinivas. Others in the fray were Lok Satta Party (LSP) nominee Chandrasekar Patnaik and independents D Sridhar and N Bhaskar.
Mr Srinivas and Mr Naidu were among the early voters.
The Congress, which had fielded Ms Revathipathi, as her husband’s death, a day before the newly-elected MLAs were sworn in, caused the bypoll, had taken the byelection as a prestige issue. State Revenue Minister D Prasada Rao and Transport
Minister S Vijayarama Raju, were personally involved in the campaign to brighten the chances of the ruling party.
The campaign became a low-key affair in the wake of the tragic death of the Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash on September two.
The main Opposition TDP was striving to avenge the defeat of its sitting MLA Atchan Naidu, younger brother of former TDP Parliamentary Party leader K Yerran Naidu, at the hands of Dr Revathipathi in the recent assembly elections and hoped that the sympathy for its candidate among voters would work in its favour. Both the TDP leaders were leaving no stone unturned to wrest the seat, once considered a TDP stronghold from the Congress.
Taking the bypoll a prestige issue, PRP President Chiranjeevi had himself vigorously campaigned for its candidate Srinivas, who was also hoping to benefit out of the sympathy factor. The counting of votes would be taken up on September 14.
—–Agencies