VIJAYAWADA: The contest for Vijayawada Central constituency witnessed a nail-biting finish after YSRC candidate Malladi Vishnu defeated Telugu Desam candidate Bonda Umamaheswara Rao by a margin of only 25 votes.
While Malladi Vishnu had the last laugh at 1 am on May 24 when the Returning Officer declared him the winner, Umamaheswara Rao silently left the counting centre with his supporters upon learning about his defeat.
While the YSRC candidate got 70,721 votes garnering a vote share of 39.73 per cent, the TDP candidate fell short of 25 votes from victory at 70,696 votes.
“I am very happy that people have reposed their trust in me for my past work. We had put together all our strengths to win the two seats in Vijayawada which is unprecedented,” said elated Malladi Vishnu.
Not just Umamaheswara Rao, even his supporters are in a state of shock after facing defeat at such a slim margin. “We still cannot digest the fact that we lost by just 25 votes. Our best efforts to reach out to the public had almost succeeded,” a close aide of Umamaheswara Rao said.
The neck-to-neck battle is also attributed to the weaning away of Kapu community votes by Jana Sena-backed CPM candidate Ch Babu Rao. Babu Rao got 16,032 (9.41%) votes in 2014 which rose to 29,333 (16.48%) votes in 2019.
“Left parties always play a major role in elections in Vijayawada. We have the support of the masses. Though I had to forfeit my deposits, I am happy for the significant rise in the number of votes that I have received. I got the support of the youth which led to the defeat of the sitting MLA,” Babu Rao said.