NELLORE: The ruling YSRC party's candidate Mekapati Vikram Reddy has registered a landslide victory in the Atmakur bypoll. Even though an official announcement is yet to be made, Vikram has reportedly won the Atmakur assembly seat by a huge margin of over 82,888 votes against his nearest Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Bharat Kumar.
YSR Congress leaders in the Atmakur segment as well in the state are celebrating the victory of the party. Mekapati Vikram Reddy is likely to receive a winning declaration form from the returning officer MN Harendhira Prasad by 1.30 pm at Atmakur.
Counting of votes for the Atmakur by-poll began at 8 am at Andhra Engineering College in Nellorepalem of Atmakur mandal on June 26. Returning officer MN Harendhira Prasad in the presence of an election observer monitored the counting process.
Since the first round of counting, the ruling party has been gaining a majority of votes while the BJP continued to stand in second place. Twenty routes of counting were done. Postal ballot votes were counted during the initial rounds of counting.
After 20 rounds of counting, Mekapati Vikram Reddy secured 1,02,074 votes while BJP candidate Bharat Kumar got 19,322 votes. Nanda Obulesu of the Bahujan Samaj Party secured 4,897 votes. Around 4,179 votes were polled to NOTA during the bypoll.
Out of 2,13,338 votes, 1,37,081 have been polled with 64.2 per cent of polling held on June 23.
In the 2019 General Election, Mekapati Goutham Reddy from the YSRC party had secured 92,758 votes while BJP candidate Karnati Anjaneya Reddy got 2,314 votes. It may be noted that the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) did not contest in the Atmakur bypoll as part of its policy.
Political observers say that with TDP not contesting the elections, there has been a drop in the poll percentage leading to an overwhelming majority for the ruling YSRC.
Meanwhile, BJP has improved its vote share when compared to 2019.
Speaking to the media, Vikram Reddy attributed his win to the support the people of Atmakur showed to his late brother Mekapati Gowtham Reddy.
The Atmakur bypoll was necessitated following the sudden demise of sitting MLA Mekapati Goutham Reddy.
Former MP Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy, father of Vikram Reddy, said the election results show people’s immense faith in Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and that today’s results were an indication of what would happen in the 2024 elections.