Hyderabad: The YSR Congress is elated over its victory in Kovur assembly constituency in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore district, its first win outside Kadapa district. Announcing its arrival on the electoral platform of the state, the party bagged the Kovur seat, wresting it from main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
By winning the only seat it contested in the by-elections, YSR Congress has sent a warning to both the ruling Congress and the TDP. N. Prasanna Kumar Reddy, who had won the seat on a TDP ticket in 2009, retained it as a candidate of the YSR Congress party.
The mood was upbeat in the party camp as its leaders and workers celebrated the win with distribution of sweets and bursting of crackers at the party office in Jubilee Hills here. Prasanna Kumar Reddy defeated S. Chandramohan Reddy of TDP by a margin of 23,496 votes. The Congress finished third.
The result is expected to boost the morale of the fledgling party ahead of another round of by-elections to 18 assembly seats. The by-elections, likely to be held in couple of months, are caused by disqualification of 16 Congress rebels who switched loyalties to YSR Congress.
One legislator of Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) also joined YSR Congress and quit the assembly seat. Tirupati seat will fall vacant as Congress has nominated actor-turned-politician K. Chiranjeevi to Rajya Sabha.
Last year, YSR party honorary president Y.S. Vijayamma, widow of late chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, had won Pulivendula assembly seat while their son Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy was elected from Kadapa Lok Sabha seat in the by-elections. But their victory was in the family stronghold of Kadapa district.
Both the mother and the son had quit Congress party and their assembly and parliament seats in 2010 to protest the party leadership's attempts to create a rift in the family. Last year, they floated the YSR Congress party.
Jagan, as the young leader is popularly known, had staged a revolt against the Congress leadership after it ignored his claim to the chief minister's post following the death of his father in a helicopter crash in 2009.
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