Hyderabad, October 18: The Telugu Desam Party has retained the Kukatpally Housing Board (KPHB) municipal division whose by-election results were announced here on Tuesday.
TDP candidate Dandamudi Samrajyam has won the seat with a majority of 2,167 votes against the nearest rival P Harish Reddy of Congress party. The counting took place at GHMC office at Moosapet.
The polling for the municipal ward by-elections was held on October 16. Of 70,886 voters, only 35.5 per cent exercised their franchise at 125 polling booths in the constituency. Though there were 11 candidates were in the fray, the main contest was between the TDP and Congress. The seat fell vacant due to the sudden demise of TDP corporator Dandamundi Shobhanadri on June 11.
Tension prevailed at the counting centre since the beginning of counting of votes on Tuesday morning. The verbal dual between the Congress and TDP workers soon turned into physical clash and both the groups threw severe blows on each other. The political activists even attacked media and damaged other private vehicles. Police had to resort to lathichrage to control the situation.
Later, the TDP workers took out a victory rally to the party headquarters NTR Bhavan. Addressing the gathering, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu claimed that KPHB by-elections results were an indication that people have lost faith in the ruling Congress party. He also alleged that the Congress had a secret pact with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and that was reason why TRS did not field its candidate in the KPHB by-elections. (INN)