Congress, allies sweep Andhra council polls (Lead)
March 18th, 2011 - 12:35 am ICT by IANS
Hyderabad, March 17 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh’s ruling Congress and its allies Thursday swept the state legislative council elections from the assembly quota by bagging seven of the 10 seats.
All the candidates fielded by the ruling party and one each of its allies Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) were elected to the upper house despite cross voting by some of its rebel legislators.
Two candidates of main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) were elected but its third candidate and former assembly speaker Pratibha Bharati suffered defeat. The candidate of the TDP’s ally Communist Party of India (CPI) was also elected.
Cross-voting also hit the prospects of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), whose candidate Mahmood Ali polled only 11 votes.
The TRS has 11 members in 294-member assembly but both legislators of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a rebel TDP leader claimed that they voted for Ali.
Twelve candidates were in the fray for 10 seats. The legislators cast their votes Thursday morning and the results were announced at night.
The cross-voting by many of the 26 legislators loyal to former Congress MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy made things difficult for the ruling party’s candidate Mohammed Jani.
In a keenly fought battle, Jani scraped through when second and third preferential votes were counted.
Jani was one of the six official candidates fielded by Congress and its allies and all legislators loyal to Jagan were asked to vote for him.
Though Congress and its allies had the strength to win six seats, the ruling party also fielded seventh candidate Ranga Reddy, who was surprisingly elected with a comfortable majority. The cross-voting by TRS or legislators supporting it are believed to have helped him win.
Jagan’s loyalists believed to have voted for MIM’s Altaf Hyder Razvi instead of Jani. Razvi bagged 36 first preferential votes, though the Congress had allotted him 27 votes like the other official candidates of the party.
The prominent candidates who were elected to upper house include senior Congress leader P. Venkata Rao, PRP leader and former Rajya Sabha member C. Ramachandraiah.
Earlier Thursday, flexing his muscles once again, Jagan held a meeting with 26 legislators supporting him.
The legislators, including 22 of Congress and two each of TDP and PRP, said Jagan did not give them any direction and asked them to vote according to their conscience.
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- Jagan challenges Congress to go for bypolls to 17 seats - Dec 06, 2011
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Tags: altaf, assembly speaker, bharati, bjp, communist party of india, hyder, jagan, janata party, jani, legislative council elections, loyalists, mahmood ali, member assembly, pratibha, preferential votes, prp, ruling party, tdp, telangana, upper house