Ruling YSR Congress Party candidate Mekapati Vikram Reddy, as expected, won the Atmakur assembly seat with a thumping majority. He polled 1,02,240 votes as against his opponent, the BJP candidate Bharat Yadav, who managed to get 19352 votes.
BJP lost deposit
The elected was necessitated by the sudden death of Mekapati Gowtham Reddy, who was a minister in the YS Jagan government. Vikram Reddy is the brother of Gowtham Reddy.
The main opposition party TDP did not field its candidate in deference to its policy not contest any seat in the event of a family member of the departed were to be in the fray. Hence, Vikram Reddy’s win was a foregone conclusion.
Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was particular that the party candidate should win by a margin of at least one lakh votes. Accordingly, he instructed his party cadre to work for the same.
The result, however, did not meet Jagan’s wishes. Vikram won by a margin of 82,888 votes, less than at least 17,000 votes that Jagan wanted. For comparison, we can refer to Tirupati bypoll, which was held in similar circumstances. TDP was in power then. The bypoll became necessary with the death of TDP MLA Venkataramana. His wife Sugunamma was fielded by the ruling TDP, and YCP chose not to be in the race. Sugunamma won by a margin of 1.16 lakh votes then.
Looks like Jagan’s expectations went haywire.
