Congress surges ahead in AP; BJP gets 4 seats
The Congress surged ahead of its rivals in Andhra Pradesh bagging 21 of the 42 seats.
The ruling Telugu Desam Party and its allies were trailing behind, having won 16 seats.
The BJP has won four seats while the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen has retained the Hyderabad seat.
The BJP, which drew a blank in the 1996 poll, won the Kakinada, Karimnagar, Rajahmundry and Secunderabad seats.
The MIM's Salauddin Owaisi has won the Hyderabad seat by a margin of over 70,000 votes.
The BJP wrested the prestigious Secunderabad seat from the
Congress, with state party president Bandaru Dattatreya defeating his nearest rival and former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao's son P V Rajeswara Rao by over 185,000 votes. The party's S Venkataswamy Naidu defeated his nearest TDP rival M V V S Murthy by 9,912 votes in Rajahmundry.
Film star U Krishnam Raju has been declared elected from Kakinada.
Ch Vidyasagar Rao, the BJP's leader in the state assembly,
has won the Naxalite-prone Karimnagar seat in Telangana by 80,112 votes. He defeated sitting MP L Ramana (TDP).
Prominent Congress winners include former chief
ministers Kotla Vijayabhaskara Reddy (Kurnool), N Janardhan Reddy (Bapatla) and Nandendla Bhaskara Rao (Khammam), former Kerala governor P Shiv Shankar (Tenali), former Union minister P Upendra (Vijayawada) and former state Congress presidents Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy (Cuddapah) and K Rosaiah (Narasaraopet).
Two former Union ministers G Venkatswamy (Peddapalli-SC) and Kamaluddin Ahmed (Hanmakonda) lost to their TDP rivals.
State Congress president Mallikarjun lost to Union Information Minister S Jaipal Reddy (Janata Dal) by over 22,000 votes in Mahabubnagar.
While Union ministers K Yerram Naidu (Srikakulam) and S Venugopalachary (Adilabad) emerged victorious, their ministerial
colleagues B B Ramaiah and Professor U Venkateswarulu lost their seats in Eluru and Bapatla. The TDP, however, retained the Nandyal seat, where faction leader Bhuma Nagi Reddy defeated Congress's Gangula Pratap Reddy by a margin of 4,650 votes.
The TDP bagged 13 seats. But several sitting
TDP MPs fell by the way side. Its allies, the Communist Party of India and the Janata Dal got two and one seats respectively.
The TDP fared poorly in the south coastal districts. It was battered by the Congress in Narsaraopet, Narasapur, Eluru, Machilipatnam, Tenali, Bapatla and Narsaraopet.
As for the performance of film stars, 'Urvasi' T Sarada
(Tenali) and K Satyanarayana (Machilipatnam), both representing the TDP, failed to retain their seats.
Another prominent TDP loser is its spokesman Lal Jan Pasha who suffered defeat in Guntur.
In the Hanamkonda assembly by-election, the Congress wrested
the seat from the TDP, when P V Ranga Rao, Narasimha Rao's eldest son, romped home with a margin of 2,960 votes.
UNI
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