Golla Babu Rao of YSR Congress Party won with a majority of 14,362 votes on the completion of counting for the Payakaraopeta (SC) Assembly segment in the district held here on Friday. He attributed his success in Payakaraopeta to the welfare schemes initiated by YSRThe election was held on June 12.
There was a delay in the official declaration of the winner as the seal of one of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) was reportedly open even before the counting could be taken up. “This pertained to Geddapalem (Polling Station 190) where 753 votes were polled. When the officials tried to retrieve the data, there was no data in it,” said a TDP agent.
An official spokesman explained, “There was a malfunctioning of the EVM at polling station 190 on the polling day. It was replaced with another EVM. When the EVM s were sent to the counting centres, the faulty one was sent instead of replaced one, which was left behind by mistake.” It's learnt that the EC had directed the officials to initiate action against the presiding officer of the polling station concerned for the lapse.
“The Election Commission was informed of the lapse and the EC directed the officials to declare the result as the number of votes polled through a single EVM wouldn't change the outcome as there was a huge difference in the votes polled by the winner and his nearest rival.”
Though 271 postal ballots were issued none of them were polled.
The counting was completed in 17 rounds. Mr. Babu Rao maintained his lead right from the first round except in the 10 and 11 rounds and again in the 15 round in which Mr. Chengala Venkata Rao polled more votes. The following are the total votes obtained by the candidates at the end of the final round: TDP – 57,601, YSRCP – 71,963, Congress – 33,867, CPI(M) (Kothapalli Lokanadham) 2,067, BJP (KNP Chakravarthy) – 1,318 and Independents Janga Rajendra Kumar – 1,543, Babu Rao Gudabandi – 854, Mathe Suresh – 803 and Marti Lakshamana Murthy secured 1,799 votes.
A beaming Mr. Babu Rao attributed his success to the welfare schemes of former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the resentment of the people against Mr. Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy's arrest and the ‘injustice' to his family and the campaign by YSRCP honorary president Y.S. Vijayamma. He said that people wished to see Mr. Jagan as Chief Minister. The Congress candidate Gantela Sumana said that ‘sentiment' had worked in favour of YSRCP and added that people were not bothered about development.
