Karimnagar: After a see-saw battle, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday managed to retain his Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat by a slender margin of 15,289 votes, a steep fall compared to over 2.20 lakh majority that he got in the 2006 election.
Chandrasekhara Rao, whose party had forced the by-elections by en masse resignations, had suffered initial setback when he was trailing but managed to sail through with a far reduced margin.
The ruling Congress nominee and former minister T Jeevan Reddy gave a tough fight and ended up with 2,53,479 votes, while the TRS chief polled 2,68,768 votes.
It was a neck-and-neck race in the Telangana heartland with the fortunes fluctuating between the Congress and TRS at the end of each round.
TDP candidate L Ramana polled 1,73,363 votes.
