TIRUPATI: In a big shocker to the YSRCP, the Opposition Telugu Desam (TD) wrested the Prakasam-Nellore-Chittoor Graduates’ seat from the ruling party. TD candidate Kancharla Srikanth won the Rayalaseema East seat (Prakasam-Nellore-Chittoor) on Saturday. He won the seat by a margin of 34,110 votes against his nearest rival Pernati Shyam Prasad Reddy of the YSRC.
The counting of votes ended in the wee hours of Saturday, Of the total 2,69,339 votes polled, 20,979 votes were invalid. TD candidate Kancharla Srikanth was leading since the first round of the counting. However, he could not get 50 per cent of the total polled votes during first priority.
After the second priority vote counting, Srikanth got 1,24,181 votes and his nearest rival Shyam Prasad got 90.071 votes. The Progressive Democratic Front candidate Meegada Venkateswara Reddy is at the third position. Returning Officer and Chittoor District Collector M. Hari Narayanan handed over the winning declaration to Srikanth Chowdary.
The victory in Graduates’ MLC polls from Rayalaseema East, which was a stronghold of the YSRC, turned to be an embarrassing defeat for the ruling party.
Opposition leaders criticised that the YSRC, which has won both Graduates’ and Teachers’ MLC seats in the East Rayalaseema region, has lost its face due to the anti-incumbency.
Though Minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, who is also Rayalaseema regional co-ordinator for the party, has led the election campaign, the ruling party has failed to attract graduate voters.
Kancharla Srikanth Chowdhary joined the TD in 2009 while working as the treasurer of Prakasam Engineering College. He contested for and won the ZPTC seat in Kandukur on behalf of the TD in 2014, and he was named the best ZPTC member in 2017.
