India
oi-Prakash KL
Amaravati,
Jun
26:
The
ruling
YSR
Congress
has
emerged
victorious
in
the
by-election
to
the
Atmakuru
Assembly
constituency
in
Andhra
Pradesh,
with
its
candidate
Mekapati
Vikram
Reddy
winning
the
seat
by
a
margin
of
82,888
votes.
Though
on
paper
there
were
14
candidates
in
the
fray,
the
contest
was
only
between
the
YSRC
and
the
BJP.
The
YSR
Congress
candidate
polled
1,02,241
votes
and
his
closest
rival-BJP
candidate
G
Bharat
Kumar
Yadav
garnered
only
19,353
votes.
Going
by
tradition,
where
the
rival
party
does
not
put
up
its
candidate
in
the
event
of
death
of
a
sitting
legislature,
the
Telugu
Desam
opted
out
of
the
by-poll
contest.
The
by-election
for
the
Assembly
seat
was
caused
due
to
the
death
of
the
sitting
legislator
and
then
Industries
Minister
Mekapati
Goutham
Reddy
in
February
this
year.
Goutham
Reddy
won
the
Atmakuru
seat
twice
successively
in
2014
and
2019,
though
his
majority
dipped
from
31,412
to
22,276.
His
younger
brother
and
YSRC
nominee
Mekapati
Vikram
Reddy
made
a
political
debut
through
the
by-poll.
There
has
been
enormous
goodwill
for
the
Mekapati
family
in
Atmakuru.
Goutham
Reddy
contributed
significantly
to
the
constituency
development,
establishing
an
industrial
park
in
200
acres
and
creating
hundreds
of
jobs
for
the
local
youth.
