TDP wins bypoll in Andhra Pradesh

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) today comfortably won the by-election from Avanigadda Assembly seat in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh.

The main Opposition party's Ambati Srihari Prasad defeated his nearest rival Saikam Rajasekhar, an Independent, by a huge margin of 61,644 votes.

Prasad secured 75,282 votes while Rajasekhar got 13,638 at the end of counting, sources in the Election Commission here said.

The other Independent in the fray, Ravi Subrahmanyam, received 3,389 votes out of the total 92,309 ballots cast in the August 21 polling, for which major political parties had not fielded their candidates.

The by-election was necessitated due to the death of sitting Avanigadda MLA Ambati Brahmanaiah of TDP in April. Prasad is Brahmanaiah's son.

On TDP's request, main political parties, including ruling Congress and Jaganmohan Reddy-led YSR Congress, did not field their candidates to make it an unanimous election.

But the two Independents refused to withdraw from the fray making voting inevitable.