Living up to his family legacy and dealing a blow to Congress, Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday won the Lok Sabha bypoll from Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh by a record margin of over five lakh votes.
Vijayalakshmi, his mother, also won from the Pulivendula Assembly constituency with a record margin.
Jagan’s rivals Mysoora Reddy of the Telugu Desam Party and DL Ravindra Reddy of the Congress lost their deposit as the late YSR’s son proved who calls the shot in Kadapa.
YSR Congress President YS Jagan Mohan Reddy sought re-election after breaking away from the Congress following the death of his father YSR Reddy and a subsequent feud with the party.
Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, son of the late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, was pitted against his former party Congress and the voters blessed him.
He got his election symbol- a ceiling fan- only two weeks before the polls.
Jagan floated the YSR Congress after falling out with the Congress high command (Sonia Gandhi) and sought re-election from his new outfit.
Reddy claimed that the Congress had humiliated him and his family despite his father (late Chief Minister YSR Reddy ) did all he could for the party and died (in a helicopter crash) for things he loved to do.
He quit his Kadapa Lok Sabha seat and his mother also resigned as an MLA of Pulivendula in November last year, leading to the bypolls on May 8.
Jagan had won the Kadapa seat with a mammoth 1.79 lakh margin after his father’s death in the air crash in 2009.