Dubbaka

The Dubbaka postal ballot counting gave initial joy to the TRS cadres. It gave the TRS nominee Solipeta Sujatha the lead over her nearest rivals. But, the TRS euphoria was very short lived. The BJP nominee Madhavaneni Raghunandan Rao began his lead in the very first round of the EVM counting. He got over 341 votes lead over the TRS. The Congress nominee Cheruku Srinivasa Reddy was lagging behind in third place.

Raghunandan Rao got 3,208 votes in the first round while Sujatha polled 2,867 votes. Congress nominee had to be content with just 648 votes.

By the time the second round of counting was completed, BJP candidate’s lead increased further to 1,135 votes over TRS. The consecutive lead of BJP nominee Raghunandan Rao gave a severe blow to the analysts’ expectations that the TRS would retain its hold.

During the campaign itself, Minister T Harish Rao commented that there was serious negative public opinion against their party’s existing leadership in Dubbaka. However, the TRS made all out efforts to win the voters favour.