TIRUPATI: In a major jolt to the Telugu Desam (TD), YSR Congress (YSRC) stormed Naidu’s bastion Kuppam in Chittoor district by winning all four ZPTCs and majority of the MPTC seats in the constituency.
The parishad elections results declared on Sunday showed a growing image of the ruling party in the TDP Supremo’s home turf as the Opposition suffered a humiliating defeat with party sympathisers securing only nine out of the total 65 MPTCs under the Kuppam constituency.
The ruling party emerged victorious in all 4 mandals under this constituency - namely Kuppam, Gudupalle, Ramakuppam and Santhipuram. They won 17 out of the 19 MPTCs in Kuppam, while the TDP got only two seats. It was a clean sweep for YSRCP, which won all the 12 and 16 MPTCs respectively in Gudupalle and Ramakuppam mandals. In Santhipuram mandal, the TDP performed better by winning seven out of the 18 MPTC seats, while the remaining 11 went into the ruling party’s kitty.
Interestingly, the ruling party won the T. Sadumuru MPTC seat in Kuppam mandal, where the TDP has been winning in a row since 1989. YSRCP candidate Ashwini (23) defeated the Opposition party candidate by a majority of 1,073 votes. Similarly, the Opposition party had to face yet another shock as the MPTC seat in Naidu’s native village Naravaripalli went into the ruling party’s account. YSRCP candidate Rajaiah won this MPTC seat with a majority of 1,347 votes, while the TDP candidate Gangadharam secured 307 votes.
Meanwhile, out of 65 ZPTCs and 886 MPTCs in Chittoor district, 30 ZPTCS and 433 MPTCs were declared unanimous, while elections for 25 MPTCs were kept on hold due to some court cases. As the contesting candidates for two ZPTCs and five MPTCs expired due to various reasons, the counting of votes was held for 33 ZPTCs and 419 MPTCs on Sunday.
Declaring the results, Joint Collector (Revenue) P. Raja Babu said the counting of votes, which started at 8 am on Sunday, was held at 11 centres across the district and final results were declared by evening. As per the results, the YSRP Congress won 33 ZPTCs and 389 MPTCs, while the TDP and independents won 25 and 5 MPTCs respectively.
It may be recalled that the ruling party earlier achieved a rare distinction in Chandragiri Assembly constituency, represented by government whip and TUDA chairman Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy, by winning 86 out of 95 MPTC seats unanimously here. Only one ZPTC and five MPTC seats went for elections in this constituency, however, the ruling party secured all the seats.
Similarly, in Thamballapalle, all 72 MPTC and 6 ZPTC seats went unanimously into YSRCP’s kitty and in Punganur, represented by panchayat raj minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, the YSRCP won 65 out of 69 MPTC seats and all the six ZPTCs without contest. The YSRCP won 63 out of 64 MPTCs and all four ZPTCs in the Srikalahasti segment unanimously.
