NIZAMABAD : Signalling the end of her sabbatical, former MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha bagged the Nizamabad MLC seat (Local Authorities) with a whopping majority. The results were out in just an hour of counting, which began on Monday morning at the local Polytechnic College. TRS leaders claimed that Kavitha won the MLC election with 88 per cent votes.

She secured 531 first-preference votes in the Local Authorities’ segment, leaving the BJP with 39 votes and Congress with 22 votes. The national parties were further disheartened by their loss of deposits. The total number of votes in the segment was 824. They were counted in two rounds. While the TRS bagged 728 votes, BJP and Congress received 56 and 29 each. Ten votes were declared invalid. V Subhash Reddy was the Congress candidate and P Lakshminarayana was that of the BJP.

That being said, the newly-elected MLC has only 14 months of term left; she will retire on January 1, 2022. Speculation is rife over her contesting the council seat once again in 2022, or the Rajya Sabha seat the same year, considering the Assembly and Parliamentary elections are nearly two years away.

After the announcement of her victory, Roads and Buildings Minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy and his supporters broke into a celebratory dance at the counting centre. Kavitha later arrived in Nizambaad from Hyderabad, where she was accorded a rousing reception by TRS supporters.