Atmakur bypoll: YSRCP candidate Mekapati Vikram Reddy emerges victorious

Amaravati, Jun 26: The ruling YSR Congress has emerged victorious in the by-election to the Atmakuru Assembly constituency in Andhra Pradesh, with its candidate Mekapati Vikram Reddy winning the seat by a margin of 82,888 votes.

Though on paper there were 14 candidates in the fray, the contest was only between the YSRC and the BJP. The YSR Congress candidate polled 1,02,241 votes and his closest rival-BJP candidate G Bharat Kumar Yadav garnered only 19,353 votes.

Going by tradition, where the rival party does not put up its candidate in the event of death of a sitting legislature, the Telugu Desam opted out of the by-poll contest.

The by-election for the Assembly seat was caused due to the death of the sitting legislator and then Industries Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy in February this year.

Goutham Reddy won the Atmakuru seat twice successively in 2014 and 2019, though his majority dipped from 31,412 to 22,276.

His younger brother and YSRC nominee Mekapati Vikram Reddy made a political debut through the by-poll.

There has been enormous goodwill for the Mekapati family in Atmakuru. Goutham Reddy contributed significantly to the constituency development, establishing an industrial park in 200 acres and creating hundreds of jobs for the local youth.