Panchumarthi Anuradha, the only candidate from TDP, emerges victorious in Andhra’s MLC election

The Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP) Panchumarthi Anuradha has won the Legislative Council elections under MLA quota, causing surprise to many, including the ruling YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh. The TDP had fielded one candidate, while the ruling party fielded seven, with the expectation of a landslide victory. However, Anuradha secured 23 votes and won the election. The other winners were VV Surya Narayana Raju, Pothula Sunitha, Bommi Israel, Chandragiri Yesuratnam, and Marri Rajasekhar from YSRCP. The ruling party assigned 22 MLAs each to one candidate to ensure that all the MLAs cast their votes as directed. However, two groups of MLAs assigned to Jayamangala Venkataramana and Kola Guruvulu had none of openly declared rebel MLAs from the party. The opposition had previously won all three graduate MLC seats.