Vivekananda Reddy conceded his defeat?

The ruling Congress leaders including the Pulivendula assembly contestant, Vivekananda Reddy conceded his defeat in the bypolls.

The Chief Minister held a post-mortem on the bypolls at his camp office on Tuesday with party nominees, Dr D.L. Ravindra Reddy and Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy, besides district MLA Veera Siva Reddy and whip S. Sailajanath.

According to sources, all the participants in the meeting concluded that both Jagan and his mother, Ms Vijayalakshmi, would win comfortably though they differed on the majority the two would secure.

Ravindra Reddy exuded confidence that Jagan’s majority would not cross 1.5 lakh votes while Vivekananda Reddy estimated that he would lose with a margin of around 10,000 votes.

The CM, however, had a different view and doubted that the majority would be much higher if women voters exercised their franchise under the influence of sympathy. Dr Ravindra Reddy’s argument that money had larger influence on the electorate also did not go down well in the meeting.

The health minister suggested that the Congress should at least now distance itself from the late Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy. According to the minister, voters had been preferring Jagan because of YSR and there was no use for the Congress despite claiming the legacy of the late CM.

Vivekananda Reddy said voters mistook his call to cast one vote to him and another for Jagan. He also complained against the district SP and wanted the CM to take stern action against him.