YCP Registers Landslide Victory In Atmakur Bypoll

The ruling YCP registered a landslide victory yet again. The party’s candidate Mekapati Vikram Reddy, brother of former minister late Mekapati Goutham Reddy, won the Atmakur byelections with a majority of 82,888 votes. Mekapati secured a total of 1,02,240 votes while his rival Bharat Kumar, belonging to the BJP, lost his deposit as he could secure only a meagre 19,352 votes. After 20 rounds of counting, the 49-year-old YCP candidate was declared the winner. In fact, the YCP candidate had been in the leading since the first round of counting.

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of Goutham Reddy due to cardiac arrest in February this year.

The YCP nominated Goutham’s brother Vikram as the party candidate for the Atmakur seat in Nellore district and the byelection was held on June 23.

Vikram is the managing director of KMC Constructions Ltd, a company founded by his father. The company is into development of infrastructure, construction and manufacturing. Vikram is also associated with at least 13 other companies floated for infrastructure development.

It is worth noting that in the 2019 general elections, Goutham Reddy won from the same constituency with a majority of 22,000 votes.

The main opposition TDP stayed away from the bypoll as the party had taken a decision not to contest if the ruling party fielded a candidate from the bereaved family.

However, a total of 14 candidates contested the Atmakur bypoll.

BJP wins a majority of seats in other bypolls

Meanwhile, the bypoll results of three Lok Sabha and six Assembly seats across four states and Delhi were also announced today. The BJP won a majority of the seats for which bypolls were held on June 23.

Of the three LS seats, BJP won the Azamgarh and Rampur Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. BJP candidate Ghanshyam Lodhi won with a majority of over 40,000 votes while party nominee Dinesh Lal Yadav won from the Azamgarh constituency.

In Punjab, Simranjit Singh Mann of the Shiromani Akali Dal won with a margin of more than 7,000 votes over AAP candidate Gurmail Singh, in a neck-and-neck fight.

In Tripura, bypolls were held for four Assembly seats – Agartala, Jubarajnagar, Surma and Town Bardowali. Chief Minister Manik Saha, who needed to get elected to keep his post, won in Town Bardowali by a margin of over 6,000 votes, defeating his nearest rival and Congress candidate Ashish Kumar Saha.

Congress candidate Sudip Roy Barma won from the Agartala constituency.

In Delhi, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Durgesh Pathak has won from Rajinder Nagar by over 11,000 votes.