On a day when the Congress was grappling with the electoral rout in Bihar, Telangana provided something to cheer for the grand old party. The high-profile Jubilee Hills assembly seat in Hyderabad, for which the bypoll was held on November 11, was wrested by the Congress from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
The victory came as a big boost to the Congress government headed by A Revanth Reddy. In fact, it was the first electoral win for the party since it came to power in the state in December 2023.
The Congress candidate Naveen Yadav won by a margin of over 24,720 votes against his nearest rival, Maganti Sunitha of the BRS. He was ahead from the very first round and maintained the lead in all subsequent rounds. Yadav scored 98,988 votes against Sunitha’s 74,259.
The BJP’s L Deepak Reddy was a distant third, managing to get 17,061 votes.
The bypoll outcome holds political significance for both the Congress and the BRS. The Congress’ win will strengthen Revanth Reddy’s hold in the party as he personally led the poll campaign.
Being the first poll battle after he became the CM, it was seen as a litmus test for his leadership and governance. The win in Jubilee Hills was important for Congress to establish its political dominance in the city, considered its weak area so far.
For nearly a week leading up to the polling, Reddy had thrown himself headlong into an intense campaign trail, participating in roadshows and street corner meetings across the constituency.
Coming just two years after Congress assumed power in Telangana, the by-poll result could serve as a referendum on his governance, potentially shaping public perception of his administration's performance, especially in the Hyderabad metropolitan region.
The assembly seat was held by the BRS, which had put up a strong showing in urban areas, particularly Hyderabad and its surroundings, in the previous assembly elections. The by-poll was necessitated following the death of sitting BRS lawmaker Maganti Gopinath on June 8 this year.
For the BRS, the loss in Jubilee Hills has come as a big setback at a time when the party is facing an internal crisis following a revolt by the patriarch K Chandrashekhar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha.
She has accused her cousins — former minister T Harish Rao and former Rajya Sabha MP Santosh Rao — of massive corruption and betrayal. Both are close confidants of KCR and form his inner circle of aides whom she dubbed a ‘ring of devils’.
The ghosts of the past are also haunting the party that once dominated the state politics for over a decade before losing power in the November 2023 assembly polls. The recent developments, like the disclosure of the Justice PC Ghose Commission report on the irregularities in Kaleshwaram project, the exposure of the alleged telephone tapping scandal and the ACB inquiry into the Formula-E car race scam, caused a big setback to the BRS, denting the party’s image.
Also read: Hyderabad streets to be named after corporates: Revanth
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