KHAMMAM: It came as a shock to the Congress party that its candidate Renuka Chowdhury was defeated in the Khammam Parliamentary constituency. The party was high on hopes and expected that the results would reflect that of the 2018 Assembly elections. However, TRS candidate Nama Nageswara Rao shackled the Congress dreams and came out victorious with a thumping majority of 1,68,072 votes.
The saddening fact is that the Congress was not able to put forth the strength it had during the Assembly elections, which garnered them six seats then, this time. Voters who had supported the party back then decided to go the TRS-way that in turn led to the failure of Renuka.
During the first phase of vote counting itself, the Congress leaders understood that several of its leaders had not bestowed their complete effort in ensuring the victory of the party candidate. However, it is learnt that Renuka Chowdhury is satisfied with the results as she was able to get around four lakh votes without distributing money or freebies. She said that it was a sign that democracy still existed.
From the beginning of poll campaigns itself, the Congress party had high hopes over the Khammam LS seat as the constituency had several traditional Congress voters who all had supported the party during the Assembly polls.