Andhra Pradesh

Adilabad LS: byelection erodes TD vote bank

ADILABAD: The big win of the Congress candidate A. Indrakaran Reddy in the byelection to Adilabad Lok Sabha seat has projected the party as people’s favourite. And, having improved upon its performances in earlier elections, the Congress has proved its point to both the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), its former ally and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

Mr. T. Madhusudhan Reddy of TRS had bagged 4,15,429 votes in the 2004 elections as an alliance candidate that summed up to about 50 per cent of the votes polled then. This time around he could get only 1,44,455 votes that is about 19 per cent of the votes cast.

On the other hand Mr. Indrakaran Reddy got 41 per cent of the votes polled despite his party fighting it out independent of the TRS. Logically, he should have secured only about 31 per cent of the 50 because of separation from the Telangana protagonist party.

He netted about 10 per cent or 75,000 votes more than his party’s share going by this yard stick.

This 10 per cent apparently came from the kitty of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) as its candidate polled about 11 per cent less than in the previous election.

The byelection did erode the much talked about vote bank of the party in the district. Even the fifth nomination in a row did not help Mr. S. Venugopalachary net higher that the 34 per cent of votes he got.

This is his lowest ever because he secured 43 per cent of votes in 1996 over Mr. Indrakaran Reddy’s 37 per cent, 40 per cent in 1998 over the Congress candidate’s 35 per cent, 52 per cent in 1999 over the 37 per cent of Mr. Sultan Ahmed of Congress and 45 per cent in 2004 even while conceding defeat to the TRS.

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