Telugu Desam Party loses council seat

GUNTUR: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) received a jolt in the council elections as the party nominee and sitting MLC, Chigurupati Varaprasad, was defeated in the graduates constituency elections.
Boddu Nageswara Rao, a retired teacher in Krishna district, contested his first election and trounced the cash-rich TDP candidate Varaprasad. The result of the legislative council election announced on Tuesday was a deadly blow to the party, especially since party supremo Chandrababu Naidu was veering around Krishna and Guntur districts as part of his padayatra.
The CPM backed Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) Nageswara Rao emerged victorious at the end of the nearly 30-hour long counting process. The counting of votes, which began at 8am on Monday, was completed around 11am on Tuesday.
District collector and returning officer S Suresh Kumar declared Boddu Nageswara Rao elected after counting of the second preferential votes. Nageswara Rao defeated Chigurupati Varaprasad with a majority of over 11,000 votes as he secured nearly 47,044 votes, while Varaprasad got around 36,000 votes.
Other candidates including CPI-backed AS Ramakrishna, YSRCP leader N Vishnu, BJP candidate Jupudi Rangaraju were way behind the top two. Boddu Nageswara Rao thanked senior MLCs, KS Lakshman Rao, Chukka Ramaiah and K Nageswar of PDF for backing him in the election.