Right from the beginning, YSR Congress Party made steady progress towards sweeping all the ten Assembly constituencies in Kadapa, the native district of party founder president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Voters of this district in Rayalaseema heartland, which is always considered a bastion of the Congress during the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy regime and later a strong turf of Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy, gave mandate on expected lines, right from the first round. As the Chief Ministerial candidate, Mr. Reddy campaigned by taking whirlwind tours across the State and could not focus on his Pulivendula constituency, but still managed to taste victory with a thumping margin of 90,543 votes. His nearest TDP rival S.V. Satish Kumar Reddy failed to leave an impact on voters.
In the Muslim-strong Kadapa constituency, YSRCP’s S.B. Azmath Basha defeated his TDP rival N. Ameer Babu with a huge margin of 52,532 votes. It was here that TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu had brought National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah all the way from Jammu and Kashmir to woo the minorities, but to no avail. In Rajampet, YSRCP’s Meda Venkata Mallikarjun Reddy defeated TDP’s B. Changalrayudu by over 38,000 votes. Interestingly, he was the government whip in the TDP government, who switched over to the YSRCP just ahead of the polls. In Kamalapuram, YSRCP leader P. Ravindranath Reddy defeated TDP’s Putha Narasimha Reddy by over 27,000 votes. YSRCP MLA K. Srinivasulu retained his Railway Kodur (SC) seat by defeating TDP’s Narasimha Prasad. In fact, the TDP candidates in Kamalapuram and Jammalamadugu constituencies -- Putha Narasimha Reddy and P. Ramasubba Reddy initially showed a semblance of lead, only to be overtaken by the YSRCP candidates P. Ravindranath Reddy and M. Sudheer Reddy respectively in the successive rounds to reach the goal post. The TDP pinned hopes on Rajampet, Jammalamadugu and Rayachoti constituencies, but started trailing behind the YSR Congress in all the ten segments in no time.
TTD trust board Chairman Putta Sudhakar Yadav, who fought the Mydukur constituency on behalf of the TDP, tasted defeat at the hands of YSRCP candidate S. Raghurami Reddy by a margin of 27,798 votes. In the adjoining Proddatur, YSRCP’s Rachamallu Sivaprasad Reddy won with a huge margin of 43,200 votes against TDP’s M. Linga Reddy. In Rayachoti, YSRCP’s Gadikota Srikanth Reddy registered victory over TDP’s R. Ramesh Kumar Reddy. In Badvel segment, YSRCP candidate G. Venkatasubbaiah won by a majority of 47,000 plus votes against TDP’s Obulapuram Rajasekhar.
