Giving the ruling party a boost, Telugu Desam Party’s Tangirala Sowmya today won the Nandigama Assembly by-poll in Andhra Pradesh by 74,827 votes.

Riding on the sympathy wave, Sowmya, a software engineer, got 99,748 votes, pushing her Congress rival Bodapati Babu Rao to a distant second with 24,921 votes in a straight contest in Krishna district.

The main Opposition YSR Congress Party had not fielded candidate after TDP requested other parties to make the election unanimous.

The by-election was necessitated following the vacancy caused by the death of Sowmya’s father due to a cardiac arrest days after he was elected in the May polls.

Talking to reporters, Sowmya attributed her victory to the leadership of TDP President and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and her late father’s hard work and clean image.

“We can consider this victory as a gift of people on the Chandrababu Naidu Government completing 100 days in office today and Vijayawada being declared as capital of Andhra Pradesh,” she said.

Though she expected to win, Sowmya said she did not expect the margin to be as high as about 75,000 votes.

Pleding to live up to the expectations of the people, Sowmya said she would work for the development of Nandigama, situated around 50 km from Vijayawada, with the help of state minister D Umamaheswara Rao and other leaders.

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