TDP candidate Panchumarthi Anuradha (former Mayor of Vijayawada) pulled off a dramatic victory in the MLC elections under MLA quota though her party has only 19 members in the Legislative Assembly. Apparently cross-voting by some dissident YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) MLAs helped her clinch the required three extra votes.
The original party position in the Assembly is YSRCP 151 seats, TDP 23 and Jana Sena Party one seat. Each MLC candidate needed 22 votes to win.
YSRCP candidates P. Suryanarayana Raju, P. Sunitha, B. Israel, Marri Rajasekhar, Ch. Yesuratnam and Jayamangala Venkataramana won the elections. K. Guruvulu was defeated.
The simmering discontent within the YSRCP helped Ms. Anuradha coast to a surprise victory. In all, eight candidates, including seven from the YSRCP and one from the TDP (Ms. Anuradha), were in the fray.
Voting began at the Assembly committee hall at 9 a.m. as per schedule and was over well before the closing time (4 p.m.) as by 2.30 p.m. itself all 175 MLAs, including Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and leader of the Opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu, had cast their votes.
Two dissident MLAs of the YSRCP (Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy and Anam Ramnarayana Reddy), four of TDP (Vallabhaneni Vamsi Mohan, M. Giridhar, Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar and Karanam Balaram) and one from Jana Sena (Rapaka Vara Prasad) were among those who voted.
