Nandigama assembly by-election campaigning comes to an end

Campaigning for the Nandigama assembly constituency bypoll ended peacefully here on Thursday evening, official sources said.
Polling is scheduled for Saturday and counting would be held on September 16.
The by-election was necessitated after the sudden demise of Tangirala Prabhakara Rao who was elected on a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) ticket in the recently held general elections.
In this by-election, Prabhakara Rao's daughter Sowmya is contesting on a TDP ticket, while Bodapati Prabhakara Rao is constesting on a Congress ticket, besides two other independent candidates.
However, the YSR Congress has stayed away from this by-election.
The late TDP candidate Tangirala Prabhakara Rao had won the election with a margin of 5,074 votes against YSR Congress candidate V Parameswara Rao.

In that election, the Congress candidate polled only 1,988 votes.

Since 1983, when the TDP was born, the Congress won the Nandigama assembly seat only in only in 1989. Except 1989, TDP won from Nandigama furing all other elections conducted in 1983, 1985, 1999, 2004 and 2009.
Political observers said that it would not be an easy task for the Congress to capture the Nandigama assembly constituency during the by-election though it is trying its best to do so.
The Congress which was routed in Andhra Pradesh during the general elections in May this year, it is now focussed on Nandigama to enter the Andhra Pradesh assembly.

Almost all senior Congress leaders have been campaigning in the constituency using all its resources, sources said.