‘Kadapa’s pride’ thrashes ‘Delhi’s ego’ in byelection – ToI – 14.5.11

Jagan, Mom Win With Massive Margins

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kadapa: In what could be one of the most one-sided elections in recent times, ‘Kadapa muddu bidda’ Jaganmohan Reddy and his mother Vijayalakshmi scored landslide victories in the bypolls to the prestigious Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula assembly constituencies, the results of which were declared here on Friday. “Kadapa’s gouravam (pride) has resoundingly beaten Delhi’s ahankaram (ego),” said a political analyst referring to the platform on which Jagan went to the polls.
    While Jagan set a new record in Kadapa by emerging victorious with a 5,45,672-vote majority, his main rivals — health minister D L Ravindra Reddy (Cong) and RS member M V Mysoora Reddy (TDP) — lost their deposits. Jagan polled 6,92,251 votes, while Ravindra Reddy got 1,46,579 votes and Mysura Reddy received 1,29,565 votes.
    Not to be left behind, Jagan’s mother Vijayalakshmi scored a thumping win in Pulivendula with a massive majority of 85,191 votes thrashing her brother-in-law Y S Vivekananda Reddy. While Vijayalakshmi polled 1,10,102 votes, Vivekananda Reddy received only 28,729 votes. Total votes polled in Pulivendula was 1,56,276. This is the first time that Congress has lost the seat.
    Jagan’s spectacular victory eclipsed the victory of his father, the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who won with a margin of 4.28 lakhs in the 1991 elections. In fact, Vijayalakshmi too outdid her husband’s margin (68,681 votes) in Pulivendula in 2009 elections by a wide margin. Y S Purushottam Reddy had won the Pulivendula bypoll in 1992 with over 97,000 votes which remains the highest majority till now.
    Riding on the wave of “ill-treatment” meted out to YSR family by Congress high command, both Jagan and Vijayalakshmi demolished the party in the elections. “It indicates a wave of change in the district where the YSR family ruled the roost for nearly four decades. The severe thrashing should be an eye-opener to Congress,” political analyst R Chakrapani observed.
    While the TDP, which traditionally has 30% vote share in Kadapa, suffered a humiliation, the Congress which has a votebank of 50-55% has ceded the ground to YSR Congress which bagged 74% votes in Pulivendula and 69% in Kadapa. “The shift in the vote percentage is significant as both TDP and Congress voter base has eroded massively,” analyst Telkapalli Ravi pointed out.
    After the win, Jagan launched a broadside at the Congress and TDP. “The verdict is a slap in the face of Congress, which has totally ignored people’s issues and problems. This result would certainly sound the bugle for the downfall of the Congress government in the state,” he warned.
    Speaking to newsmen after collecting his winning papers, Jagan said: “Everybody is talking about the downfall of this inept government as people are fed up with it,” he said, adding that both Congress and TDP were hand in glove to ensure that the state government does not fall.