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TDP springs surprise in Machilipatnam

Staff Reporter

In a ‘tug of war’ contest TDP nominee Konakalla Narayana Rao emerges victorious

MACHILIPATNAM: In a ‘tug of war’ contest in Machilipatnam Lok Sabha constituency, TDP nominee Konakalla Narayana Rao emerged victorious by defeating Congress candidate and sitting MP Badiga Ramakrishna by a margin of 12,456 votes.

While Mr. Narayana Rao bagged 4,09,936 votes, including 2,325 postal ballots, Mr. Ramakrishna polled 3,97,480, including 3,155 postal ballots. Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) candidate Ch. Ramachandraiah, who gave a tough fight in some rounds, secured 1,86,921, including 1,443 postal ballots.

Spoiler

The widely-held belief that Mr. Ramachandraiah could prove to be the spoiler for Mr. Ramakrishna seems to have come true, as the Praja Rajyam candidate made a strong dent into the traditional votebank of the Congress.

Mr. Ramakrishna’s lead continued till the end of 12th round, but the situation changed thereafter. Mr. Narayana Rao secured a lead of about 1,000 votes in the 13th round, and it led to his victory. Gannavaram segment played spoilsport for Mr. Ramakrishna as the TDP candidate bagged a margin of more than 20,000 votes here, while in Pedana he managed to get a margin of just about 800 votes.

Assembly segments like Avanigadda and Gudivada, where Ministers Mandali Buddha Prasad and Pinnamaneni Venkateswara Rao lost, also did not help the sitting MP in improving his chances of victory.

The sitting MP secured majority in all the four segments where his party candidates won – Machilipatnam, Pedana, Pamarru and Penamaluru but that was clearly not enough. Mr. Narayana Rao gained upper hand in other segments, including Gannavaram, Gudivada, and Avanigadda. The TDP secured a majority of 20,245 votes in Gannavaram segment, while it is 10,059 and more than 2,000 in Gudivada and Avanigadda segments, respectively.

Upper hand

Mr. Ramakrishna gained upper hand in Machilipatnam with 10,234 votes, in Pamarru with about 7,000 and in Pedana with about 800.

Mr. Narayana Rao’s winning margin is much less than that secured by Mr. Ramakrishna in 2004.

Mr. Ramakrishna then defeated his TDP rival Ambati Brahmanaih by 50,341 votes. Interestingly, there is no significant increase in the total number of votes bagged by Mr. Ramakrishna now over the 2004 score.

He got in the last election 3,87,127 votes and now 3,97,480.

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