Hyderabad, Nov 14 (IANS) Telangana BJP leaders have claimed that the Congress party won the Jubilee Hills byelection with the support of the AIMIM.

BJP state president N. Ramchander Rao remarked that the Congress party is celebrating the victory of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)

“We respect people’s mandate, but this is not the mandate for the Congress party. It was the mandate for the AIMIM,” he told media persons.

Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy said that Congress won Jubilee Hills purely with the support of the AIMIM, banking on appeasement politics and the use of muscle power.

“We will review the Jubilee Hills byelection results and further strengthen our efforts,” he said.

BJP suffered a humiliating defeat in the byelection, with its candidate Lankala Deepak Reddy failing to save his security deposit.

Congress party’s V. Naveen Yadav won the byelection, defeating his nearest rival Maganti Sunitha of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) by a margin of nearly 25,000 votes.

Naveen Yadav polled 98,988 votes while Sunita secured 74,259 votes. BJP’s Deepak Reddy finished a distant third with only 17,061 votes.

The Congress party wrested the seat from BRS by securing 50.83 per cent of the polled votes. BRS polled 38.13 per cent votes while BJP could get only 8.76 per cent votes.

The result came as a personal setback for Kishan Reddy in his Lok Sabha constituency, Secunderabad.

The Union Minister for Coal and Mines led the campaign with active participation by the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar and all other party MPs from the state.

Ramchander Rao said party cadres worked hard in Jubilee Hills despite knowing the nature of the constituency. He said even in 2009, when Bandaru Dattatreya contested from Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency, the BJP did not get a majority in Jubilee Hills.

He recalled that in 2014, the TDP-BJP combine had secured the victory, but in 2018, the BRS bagged the seat with the AIMIM’s support.

The BJP president said Naveen Yadav, who won the byelection as a Congress candidate, had earlier contested as an AIMIM candidate from the same constituency.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders hailed the NDA’s victory in the Bihar elections. “The people of Bihar have delivered a historic mandate to the NDA — one that rejects the return of ‘Jungle Raj’ and reaffirms their trust in development and good governance,” Kishan Reddy posted on ‘X’.

He stated that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and allies in the state, Bihar has seen visible progress in infrastructure, welfare delivery, law and order, and economic growth.

MoS Bandi Sanjay said Bihar has given the NDA a resounding mandate. He called it a clear signal that people continue to place their trust in the leadership of Prime Minister Modi.

–IANS

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