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TDP wins 5 Rajya Sabha seats

The ruling Telugu Desam Party swept the biennial election to the Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh by bagging five seats, and helped its ally, the Communist Party of India, win the sixth one.

Congress candidate and Deccan Chronicle owner T Venkatram Reddy was defeated by the TDP's Kala Venkat Rao at the end of round six. Kala Venkat Rao polled 4,115 votes as against the 4,101 by Venkataram Reddy.

Dasari Nagabhushana Rao of the CPI, who bagged the maximum first preference votes, 43, and Y Venkatrao of the TDP were elected in the first round, while P Prabhakar Reddy and C Ramachandriah, both TDP general secretaries, were elected in the second round.

The TDP's R Ramachandriah was elected at the end of the third round.

In the 295-member House, the effective strength was only 290 as four MLAs -- two from the TDP and one each from the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress -- were elected to the Lok Sabha.

The TDP (213) and its allies -- the CPI (17) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (15) -- have a strength of 245 MLAs. The Congress has 25 MLAs and six associate members from among the Independents. The NTR-Telugu Desam Party had one seat. Three of its MLAs had recently joined the Congress -- though not registered officially.

With 41.43 first preference votes required for a contestant to be elected, four TDP and one CPI candidate was easily elected. The tussle from the beginning was for the sixth seat as the ruling party had only 35 additional votes, which was equal to the strength of the Congress camp.

However, election results showed there was some cross voting as Venkatram Reddy secured 41 first preference votes -- six more than the party's tally.

Though the TDP had allotted 42 MLAs for its first four candidates, three of them secured only 41 first preference votes. Only Venkat Rao got 42 first votes -- as per the allotment -- and was elected in the first round.

Kala Venkata Rao, who got 40 first preference votes, won through the transfer of votes in subsequent counts.

UNI

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