Tadipatri municipality in Ananthapur district is now center of attraction after the municipal elections.
Tadipatri is one municipality where the opposition TDP had won majority seats, pushing the ruling YSR Congress to the second place.
Elections were held for 34 wards in the municipality as two were unanimously won by the YSR Congress.
In the elections, the opposition TDP had won 18 wards, while the YSR Congress could manage to win 14 wards.
The balance two wards were won by an independent candidate and the CPI candidate.
Former MP J C Diwakar Reddy family had played key role in steering the elections in favour of the TDP.
The JC family had immediately taken the independent and CPI councillor along with the 18 councillors and is running a camp to keep the folks together.
With the CPI and the independent, the TDP’s strength at 20, while the YSR Congress party’s strength stood at 16.
The ruling YSR Congress planned to secure majority by getting voting right for the MLCs, MLAs and MPs from the district.
YSR Congress MLCs Samanthakamani, Iqbal Mohammad and Gopala Reddy, besides MLA Ketireddy Pedda Reddy and MP K Rangaiah have applied for ex-officio vote.
Similarly, from the TDP, MLC Deepak Reddy applied.
However, the returning officer and municipal commissioner accepted the applications of MLA Ketireddy Pedda Reddy and MP Rangaiah and refused to accept the other MLCs on the ground that they are not from the Tadipatri municipality area.
Thus, the YSR Congress secured only two ex-officio votes taking its strength to 18, which is equal to TDP’s strength.
The TDP has the CPI member and independent in its kitty taking its strength to 20 in the 36-member council, where simple majority is 19 members.
The decision of the returning officer, thus had put the ruling party in trouble and gave clear edge to the opposition TDP to win the chairman and vice-chairman posts.
It is to be seen how the ruling YSR Congress would handle this situation.
