Nellore: TDP's tough competition reduces YSRCP majority

Nellore: Four assembly constituencies in the district fairly supported the winning chances of YSRCP Tirupati Lok Sabha candidate Dr M Gurumoorthy where he got majority between 36,000-41,000 votes. Sarvepalli topped in all segments with 40,895 votes, followed by Venkatagiri with 40,863 votes, Sullurpet reserved constituency with 39,885 votes and another reserved constituency Gudur with 36,492 votes.

Out of total majority of 2,71,592 votes in the entire Lok Sabha segment, a major chunk of 1,58,135 votes were from four assembly segments of Nellore district. Legislators are on cloud nine as they accomplished the task assigned by the party. Gudur is the only segment that failed to get the maximum majority where the party leaders have been at loggerheads with local MLA due to internal dissidence.

In fact, Nellore is a strong bastion for YSRCP where majority of Congress voters gradually turned to the party and now, the party leaders won all assembly segments and the Lok Sabha seat too. Party MLAs planned to achieve a majority of 5 lakh votes but had to confine to 2.71 lakh votes. The reason was the TDP put all efforts to reduce most of the ruling party and its chief visited important places of all assembly segments criticising the ruling party and its activities. The situation significantly changed at the end of the campaign which finally resulted in lowering the majority that the huge volume of party leaders expected.

Initially, TDP leaders anticipated a defeat as the YSR Congress was on a winning spree in the local body elections including Panchayat and municipal elections held prior to Tirupati Lok Sabha byelection. All the seven assembly constituencies under the Tirupati LS segment are represented by YSRCP legislators.

However, the strong efforts of party chief Chandrababu Naidu in the last leg of electioneering changed the situation. TDP thus managed to secure 3.54 lakh votes giving a tough fight in the polls with a significant vote share.