VIJAYAWADA: In a jolt to the ruling YSRC, Telugu Desam nominee Panchumarthi Anuradha emerged victorious in AP Legislative Council (MLC) elections from MLA quota on Thursday.
Although TDP has strength of 19 MLAs as four of its legislators changed loyalties to YSRC, its nominee Anuradha secured the support of 23 legislators and got 23 votes against the required 22 votes. This is the second jolt to YSRC after the TDP recently swept Graduate MLC elections by winning all three MLC seats.
The YSRC expected that two of its rebel legislators Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy and Anam Ramanarayana Reddy would vote for the TD and was confident of seven MLCs win but it had not expected that other legislators would also cross the line.
YSRC fielded seven MLC candidates namely Jayamangala Venkataramana, Marri Rajasekhar, Chandaragiri Yesuratnam, Bommi Israel, Kola Guruvulu, Pothula Sunita and Penmetsa Varaha Venkata Suryanarayana Raju while TDP fielded Panchumarti Anuradha.
YSRC aspirants Venkataramana and Guruvulu got 21 votes each hence second preferential votes were taken into consideration in which Venkataramana emerged as winner with second preferential vote and Guruvulu lost the elections.
The MLC election winners are Jayamangala Venkataramana, Marri Rajasekhar, Chandaragiri Yesuratnam, Bommi Israel, Pothula Sunita and Penmetsa Varaha Venkata Suryanarayana Raju of YSRC and Panchumarti Anuradha of TD.
The result left the ruling party leaders and cadres in a state of shock as it was completely an expected result as the YSRC had fielded seven candidates and wanted to win all the seven but the ruling party was limited to six wins.
The ruling party started an autopsy of MLC elections to identify the black sheep and to further strengthen the party by clearing weeds.
