Cong wins Tekkali bypoll by 7,173 votes

Srikakulam, Sept 14 :

The ruling Congress party has retained Tekkali Assembly constituency in the by-elections held on September 10 by winning with a margin of 7,173 on Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

Congress party candidate, Korla Bharati defeated TDP candidate Achham Naidu by 7,173 votes. Mr. Naidu is the brother of former Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party leader K. Yerran Naidu.Congress Party got majority in 8 rounds while TDP candidate got majority in 5 rounds. PRP and Loksatta lost deposit in this by-poll. This by-election was held due to the death of Korla Revatipathi. The Congress candidate has got 59,250 votes while TDP secured 52,077. The Praja Rajyam polled 17,858 while Loksatta got 1,277 votes.

 The sympathy wave is reflected in the improvement of the Congress party's victory margin from 1,818 votes in May this year to over 7,173 votes now. Sympathy wave helped Congress party candidate in this election. But, party failed to get expected majority despite election was held just 1 week after YSR’s death. This clearly shows the fact that there is no big sympathy wave of YSR as media and Congress party people have projected in the last one week.  PRP lost more than 20,000 votes in just 4 months.

The by-election was necessitated by the death Bharati’s husband K Revatipathi. Revatipathi, who was elected in the Assembly elections, died of cardiac arrest on June 2, a day before he was to take oath as legislator in the assembly.