KAMAREDDY: If the intense public scrutiny on the most high-profile of all electoral battles in the state was not enough, the wild swinging of the pendulum on Sunday left election agents, candidates and voters alike biting their nails as they waited for the results from the Kamareddy Assembly constituency.
It was but natural that counting of votes for the Kamareddy seat would attract much attention since TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy had challenged Chief Minister and BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao for the seat. Before the counting of votes began, not much attention was paid to BJP candidate Katipalli Venkata Ramana Reddy or the other 37 candidates in the fray.
The counting of votes commenced at 8 am at AMC Godown in Kamareddy and by the end of the 19 tension-filled rounds, there were many with their nails chewed off.The initial rounds saw Revanth taking a lead of around 3,000 votes through postal ballots. However, the situation changed in the fourth round, with Ramana Reddy surging ahead. KCR, who had been trailing, managed to secure a lead in the fifth and sixth rounds.
The tension grew thicker as Venkata Ramana Reddy and Revanth exchanged leads in subsequent rounds. With uncertainty all-pervasive, no party agent or analyst dared predict the result.With counting being completed and the officials declaring the result, there was a collective sigh — of relief, shock, incredulity and despair — as Venkata Ramana Reddy triumphed over KCR and Revanth. The margin of victory remained slim — just 6,741