Sunday, 17 May 2009	The Hindu

NIZAMABAD: The sitting MP Madhu Yaskhi Goud retained the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat despite his party losing six out of the seven Assembly segments falling in the constituency indicating that there was a large scale of cross voting in favour him.

He secured the seat for the second time by defeating the Grand Alliance candidate Bigala Ganesh Gupta (TRS) with a majority of 59,962 votes.

He polled 2,95,474 votes, while his nearest rival Mr. Gupta secured 2,35,512. Reversing the expectations the PR nominee P. Vinay Kumar who is new to the constituency and came to the constituency only to file the papers polled a considerable chunk of votes (1,65,666) and the BJP nominee J. Bapu Reddy got 1,13,131.

The rest of eight contestants lost deposits. The BSP candidate Yedla Ramu who had gained 28,000 and odd votes in 2004 elections failed to fare well this time by getting 15,141 votes. Interestingly, except in Bodhan, the Congress candidates D. Srinivas (Nizamabad-urban), A. Lalitha (Nizamabad-rural), K.R. Suresh Reddy (Armoor), S. Srinivas Reddy (Balkonda), J. Ratnakar Rao (Korutla) and T. Jeevan Reddy (Jagityal) were defeated.

More votes

Mr. Goud who championed the cause of separate Telangana all through his tenure as MP in the last five years polled even more than his party candidates in Armoor, Nizamabad (Urban) and Nizamabad (Rural), Balkonda and Jagityal Assembly segments. He got more votes in these segments though his party stalwarts lost the election.

Thanking the people for voting the Congress at the Centre and in the State Mr. Madhu Goud, said people responded positively to the welfare and developmental schemes introduced by the Congress led UPA Government. Describing that it was a positive vote for the five-year rule of Congress, he said the people realised there was no match to Dr. Manmohan Singh’s vision,

Sonia’s leadership and Dr. Rajasekhar Reddy’s commitment and dedication to the welfare of the people. He said the AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi along with Sonia Gandhi worked hard to bring back the party to power in the Country and the State.

The people were aware that a stable Government could be possible only with the Congress, he said.