Thumping win for YSRCP in VMC
The YSRCP won the elections to the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) with a thumping majority on Sunday.
The ruling party registered victory in 49 of 64 wards, while the Opposition TDP, which was at the helm in the previous term, could win only in 14 wards.
CPI(M) candidate B. Satya Babu emerged victorious in the 50th ward, while the CPI lost in all the six wards it had contested in alliance with the TDP. The CPI(M) contested in 22 wards.
The YSRCP leadership will soon announce the names of the candidates for the Mayor and Deputy Mayor posts, the elections for which would be conducted on March 18.
The JSP and BJP candidates were defeated in all the wards (41 and 22 respectively) they contested. However, the JSP managed to bag the third position in several wards.
In the 15th ward, where only YSRCP and JSP candidates were in fray, the latter secured 3,678 votes but lost to Bellam Durga by a margin of 956 votes.
Kesineni Swetha, TDP’s mayoral candidate and daughter of MP Kesineni Srinivas, won by a majority of 1,783 votes in the 11th ward by defeating YSRCP’s Kammili Shoba Rajini.
Eleven out of 14 wards won by the TDP were unreserved while the other three were reserved for the BCs.
It was a close contest between the TDP and YSRCP in several wards. The opposition party won by a majority of more than 2,000 votes in a few wards. The wards the TDP won were 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 23, 26, 28, 32, 45, 52 and 60.
While TDP’s Potluri Siva Sai Prasad, who won the 12th ward, is the oldest, YSRCP’s Bhimisetty Pravallika, who won the 3rd ward, is the youngest.
Twenty-two of the elected candidates are in the 20-40 age group, while 39 are in the 41-60 age group. Only three candidates are aged over 60.
Jasti Samabsiva Rao, Devineni Aparna, Adapa Seshagiri, Nelibandla Balaswamy, Veeramachineni Lalitha, Bandi Punyaseela, Bulla Vijay Kumar, Ummadi Venkateswarlu, Avuthu Sailaja Reddy are among those elected more than once to the council.