Split voting at Nanded polling booths benefits Congress in LS bypoll but not in simultaneous Assembly election

In a classic example of choosing different horses for different courses at the polling booth, a number of voters across Maharashtra’s Nanded district split their votes earlier this month, choosing the candidate of one party for a parliamentary bypoll and the nominee of an opposing party for the Assembly seat. As a result, the Congress’s Ravindra Chavan became the MP for Nanded, even as the BJP-led Mahayuti cornered all six Assembly seats within the Lok Sabha constituency. As part of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, the Congress fielded its nominees in all six Assembly seats in Nanded, where they garnered a sum total of 4,27,465 votes, 1.59 lakh votes less than Mr. Chavan got in the parliamentary poll. Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party candidate Maddila Gurumoorthy won the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat, but the party lost all the seven Assembly seats falling under the parliamentary constituency to the Telugu Desam Party-BJP-Jana Sena Party combine.