The ruling YSR Congress on Sunday secured a thumping victory in the by-election to the Tirupati (SC) Lok Sabha constituency, trouncing the main opposition Telugu Desam Party by a record margin of over 2.70 lakh votes.
A political novice, YSRC candidate M Gurumoorthy defeated former Union Minister of State Panabaka Lakshmi of the TDP by a margin of over 14 per cent votes.
It was virtually a no-show for the BJP, which had high hopes of reclaiming the seat, though its nominee K Ratna Prabha, a retired IAS officer, managed to get 5.16 per cent of the votes.
She had to forfeit her deposit. It was a consolation for the BJP that it improved its vote-share from a mere 1.22 per cent in 2019, this time though in alliance with the Jana Sena Party.
The YSRC, however, failed to reach its target victory margin of five lakh votes and had to be content with less than three lakh. But, it increased its vote-share from 55.03 per cent in 2019 to over 56.7 per cent now.
The TDPs vote-share dipped from 37.65 per cent to just over 32 per cent. The Congress Chinta Mohan, a former Union Minister of State, could not get even 10,000 votes as the party lost more than one per cent share this time.
By-election for the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat was held on April 17 following the death of sitting MP Balli Durga Prasad Rao due to COVID-19.