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TDP, BJP set to sweep AP

The ruling Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh is set to sweep the Lok Sabha election winning 23 of the 28 seats, results of which have been announced so far, and forging ahead in five other constituencies.

The TDP's poll ally the Bharatiya Janata Party has bagged five Lok Sabha seats in the state and is leading in two other constituencies.

The Congress could bag only three seats and has established leads in two other constituencies. The party had won 22 Lok Sabha seats in the 1998 parliamentary poll.

Many Congress stalwarts including former Union ministers P Shiva Shanker (Tenali), P Upendra (Vijayawada) and former chief minister N Janardhana Reddy (Narsaraopet) were facing defeat with their rivals gaining winning leads. Senior Congress leader and Congress Working Committee member Kotla Vijayabhaskara Reddy was defeated by K E Krishnamurthy of the TDP in Kurnool. T Subbirami Reddy of the Congress has lost in Visakhapatnam.

The other prominent Congress leaders who tasted defeat in the assembly elections include former Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee presidents K Rosaiah, V Hanumanth Rao, former ministers M Sashidhar Reddy and P V Ranga Rao, son of former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao.

Both the Communist parties, which won 30 seats in alliance with the TDP in the last elections, faced a near rout.

Another prominent leader who lost was Ch Rajeshwar Rao, who quit the Communist Party of India and joined the TDP just before the elections.

The alliance between the BJP and the TDP has paid dividends to both the parties.

The son of the late N T Rama Rao, Harikrishna, who formed the Anna Telugu Desam Party, and NTR's widow Lakshmi Parvathi were other prominent losers.

In the Eluru Lok Sabha seat, former Union minister Bolla Buliramaiah of the TDP defeated his nearest Congress rival M Venkateswara Rao by 62,231 votes. The TDP wrested the seat from the Congress.

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president Y S Rajasekhara Reddy who had maintained till the last minute that his party would capture more than 200 seats, said he was accepting the people's verdict and that the Congress would play the role of a responsible opposition in the assembly.

The TDP has so far captured 97 of the 158 assembly seats, the results of which were declared so far, while the Congress could manage to win only 47 seats. The BJP won seven seats, the Majlis Itjehadul Muslimeen and independents four and three respectively.

A notable feature of this election is that several Congress stalwarts were humbled, with the biggest upset being that of Congress legislature party leader P Janardhan Reddy, who was defeated by a political novice and former Central Bureau of Investigation director K Vijayarama Rao.

UNI, Shireen in Hyderabad

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