ANANTAPUR: After several hours of drama and protests, the district authorities declared the results of the West Rayalaseema Graduates’ Constituency MLC election late Saturday night. However, the declaration form was handed over to the winning candidate on Sunday morning only.
TDP’s Bhumireddy Ramgopal Reddy won the Anantapur-Kadapa-Kurnool Graduates Constituency MLC election by a majority of 7,543 votes in the second preference vote counting. The counting of votes started on March 16 and went on for nearly 50 hours. YSRC’s V Ravindra Reddy led throughout the first preference vote counting but slipped into the second position when the second preference vote counting started.
The YSRC alleged lapses and complained to the Election Commission, while the TDP too sought the Election Commission’s intervention to declare the result. Protesting against the delay in announcing the election result, Ramgopal Reddy staged a demonstration and he was taken into custody last night.
District Returning Officer S Nagalakshmi issued the declaration letter to the winning candidate on Sunday morning, putting an end to the election process.