Both Telugu men face defeat in UK general elections

Hyderabad: Neither of the two Telugu men contesting in the UK general elections, managed to make the cut, when the results were announced on Friday.
While Uday Nagaraju of the Labour Party came in second, well behind his Conservative Party opponent Richard Fuller in North Bedfordshire, Dr Chandra Kanneganti managed to finish third in the race from the Stoke-on-Trent Central constituency.Both the Persons of Indian Origin have roots in Telangana and have been living in the UK for several decades.

Nagaraju’s loss came even as his party swept the polls on Friday. His constituency though is a Conservative stronghold. The winning candidate, Fuller, garnered 19,981 votes (38% of total vote share) while Nagaraju managed to get 14,567 votes — vote share of 28.3%. The 78,850-voter constituency recorded a total polling percentage of 65%.
“It’s a neck-and-neck fight and every single vote counts,” Nagaraju has said during his campaign urging voters to come out in support of the Labour Party. Born in Karimnagar and educated in Warangal and Hyderabad, he went to the UK to pursue higher studies more than 20 years ago. Ever since he has been there. A distant relative of former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, Nagaraju has been active in politics for a while.
Dr Kanneganti too moved to the UK after he completed his medical studies at NIMS in Hyderabad — about 30 years ago. The man from Nizamabad has been serving as a general practitioner there while being part of politics that he took to 17 years ago.
Dr Kanneganti was fielded from the Stoke-on-Trent Central constituency that was won by Labour Party’s Gaeth Snell. The latter got 14,950 votes — 42.4% vote share — as against Dr Kanneganti who stood third with 6,221 votes (17.6% vote share). The constituency has a 73,693 voters and saw a turnout of 48% on polling day.
Previously, the GP has served as councillor and Lord Mayor from 2021 to 2022 for Stoke-on-Trent City council.