Hyderabad: The ruling Congress Thursday wrested the Bobbili Lok Sabha constituency in Andhra Pradesh from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) with a margin of just 157 votes, but the state's main opposition party has refused to accept the result and demanded recounting.

Tension prevailed at the counting centre in Vijyanagaram as TDP workers, demanding recounting of votes, clashed with police and Congress workers.

According to unofficial results, Congress candidate Botsa Jhansi, wife of Marketing Minister Botsa Satyanarayana, defeated TDP's K. Appala Naidu by 157 votes in the constituency in north coastal Andhra. The initial results had showed Jhansi winning the seat by over 1,000 votes.

After the TDP insisted on a re-totalling, the margin came down to a mere 157 votes.

About 72 percent of about a million voters had cast their votes in the by-poll held on Monday. The seat fell vacant due to death of Appala Naidu's father and TDP's sitting member Pydithali Naidu recently.

Refusing to accept the result, the TDP workers alleged that the returning officer resorted to malpractices and took to streets and blocked traffic near the counting centre. Tension prevailed as police caned the mob and the workers of the two parties clashed at the centre.

In Hyderabad, TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu demanded recounting of votes in every electronic voting machine.

In 2004, Appala Naidu's father Pydithalli Naidu of TDP had defeated Jhansi by 31,348 votes. The voter turnout then was 76.54 percent.

The win in Bobbili will take Congress' tally of Lok Sabha seats in the state to 30 out of total 42 in the state.

In the 2004 polls, the Congress had bagged 29 seats, while its then ally Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) got five seats and Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India Marxist (CPI-M) one seat each. The TDP could secure five seats while one seat went to Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM).