Slender margins help multiple candidates in Mancherial

The Mancherial Municipal Corporation elections witnessed several nail-biting finishes, with candidates scraping through by narrow margins. In Kyathanapalli municipality, BRS nominees Bomma Bhumaiah Goud and Koppi Rajashekhar won their wards by margins of three and four votes respectively.

Mancherial: Several contestants managed to clinch victory by a slender margin in recent elections to Mancherial Municipal Corporation (MMC) of which counting of votes was conducted on Friday.

Gajula Mukesh Goud, who contested on a BJP ticket from division 57 in the newly created MMC, expected that success in the polls would be a cakewalk for him. He carried out intense campaigning as well. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had campaigned, even supporting the candidature of Mukhesh who he said, would be picked as Mayor if the party was voted to power.

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However, Mukesh scraped through by a margin of barely nine votes. Though his opponent requested for a recount, Mukesh managed to get three more, taking his margin to 12 votes. He got 948 votes, while his opponent got 936 votes.

He was the vice-chairperson of Mancherial municipality between 2020 and 2024 before the civic body was captured by the Congress in 2025.

Similarly, former Mancherial municipal vice-chairperson Nalla Shankar fielded by the Congress from division No. 56 had to be content with a margin of 62 votes over his opponent Vengala Komuraiah of BJP. Recounting of votes was held not for once, but twice as per requests by Komuraiah. Shankar polled 1,062 votes as against 1,002 votes secured by Komuraiah.

Meanwhile, a BRS nominee from ward no.11 in Kyathanapalli municipality Bomma Bhumaiah Goud heaved a sigh of relief by crossing the line by a margin of just three votes.

Bhumaiah got 384 votes as against 381 votes polled by Burkala Vikram of the Congress, surprising many. Another BRS nominee Koppi Rajashekhar, who was in the fray from ward no.14 won by a margin of just four votes.