NDA's MPTC Lead Fails To Translate Into ZPTC Win In Tirupati Rural
YSRC candidate Chevireddy Harshit Reddy wins the ZPTC seat by 563 votes despite the NDA securing a 3,027-vote lead in MPTC polls.
The NDA alliance's lead of 3,027 votes over the YSRC in the MPTC elections in Tirupati Rural did not translate into a ZPTC victory. Opposition YSRC won the ZPTC seat by 563 votes.
In the MPTC elections, NDA candidates secured 30,617 votes (50.6 per cent), against 27,590 (45.6 per cent) polled by the YSRC. The alliance won 19 seats.
However, the ZPTC contest produced a different result. YSRC candidate Chevireddy Harshit Reddy secured 41,296 votes (49.5 per cent), while NDA candidate Mucheli Dhanalakshmi polled 40,733 votes (48.8 per cent).
“The alliance’s lead in the MPTC elections did not carry over to the ZPTC contest. Candidate preference and local political factors may have influenced the voting," said P. Ravi Kumar, a political observer.
Further, invalid votes exceeded the winning margins in two closely contested ZPTC constituencies. In K.V. Puram, Telugu Desam (TD) candidate won by 301 votes, while 1,315 votes had been declared invalid. In Renigunta, BJP candidate secured victory by 337 votes, against the 942 invalid votes.
“Such a large number of invalid votes can be significant in closely fought elections, particularly when the winning margins are only a few hundred votes", Ravi Kumar underlined.
Across Tirupati district, the alliance secured 3,18,217 MPTC votes (53.4 per cent) and won 205 seats, while the YSRC polled 2,42,799 votes (40.7 per cent) and won 85 seats.
In the ZPTC elections, the alliance won 24 seats with 3,98,568 votes (52.5 per cent), against six seats and 3,30,864 votes (43.6 per cent) for the YSRC. NOTA received 4,641 MPTC votes, exceeding the combined 4,625 votes secured by the Congress and other parties across the district.
