Hyderabad, Nov 14 (IANS) Telangana’s ruling Congress party wrested Jubilee Hills Assembly seat from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in the bye-election by a comfortable margin on Friday.

In a direct contest, V. Naveen Yadav of the Congress defeated his nearest rival Maganti Sunitha by a margin of 24,729 votes. This is the highest margin of victory in the constituency’s history.

Naveen Yadav polled 98,988 votes while Sunitha secured 74,259 votes. BJP’s Lankala Deepak Reddy finished a distant third with only 17,061 votes and forfeited his security deposit.

The Congress candidate was leading from the very first round and increased the lead with every round. The BRS did not secure a lead in any round.

Tuesday’s bye-election saw 48.49 per cent polling. Out of total 4,01,365 voters, 1,94,631 voters had exercised their franchise.

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

Though a total of 58 candidates were in the fray, the fourth-highest number of votes were cast for None Of The Above (NOTA) as a total of 924 voters opted for the NOTA option.

The bypoll was caused by the death of Maganti Gopinath of the BRS. The main Opposition party had fielded his wife to cash in on the perceived sympathy wave, but that gamble did not pay off for KCR’s party.

This is the second bypoll win for the Congress party since coming to power in 2023. It wrested Secunderabad Cantonment seat from the BRS last year. The bye-election was caused by the death of BRS MLA G. Lasya Nanditha in a road accident.

The victory in the bypoll will increase the official tally of the Congress party in the 119-member Assembly to 66.

The win also comes as a boost for the Congress party in Greater Hyderabad, the region where it had drawn a blank in the November 2023 polls.

The victory is also likely to lift the spirits of the ruling party cadres ahead of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections.

The bye-election was fought as a prestige battle by the Congress and BRS. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and his entire Cabinet had campaigned aggressively for the party candidate.

The BRS, which was hoping to bounce back after losing power and drawing a blank in Lok Sabha elections last year, received another setback on Friday.

The BRS had termed the bye-election a referendum on the performance of the Congress government.

After receiving the election certificate from the Returning Officer, Naveen Yadav said the voters have given a befitting reply to those who tried to win by maligning him. He thanked all the voters who supported him.

Naveen Yadav said he would make all efforts to live up to the expectations of the people of the constituency by working to solve their problems.

Celebrations broke out in the Congress camp and Ministers and top leaders congratulated each other at party headquarters Gandhi Bhavan. Party cadres celebrated the win by bursting firecrackers and distributing sweets.

Hyderabad incharge minister Ponnam Prabhakar appealed to Congress cadres across the state to celebrate the win in the bye-election.

Stating that the Congress government implemented several schemes for people’s welfare, he said both the BRS and BJP spread false propaganda against the government.

In 2023, Gopinath of BRS had scored a hat-trick by defeating his nearest rival Mohammed Azharuddin of the Congress party by a margin of 16,337 votes.

The BRS candidate secured 80,549 votes while Azharuddin polled 64,212 votes. BJP’s Deepak Reddy finished third with 25,866 votes. AIMIM’s Farazuddin was fourth with just 7,848 votes.

This time, AIMIM led by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi supported the Congress candidate.

–IANS

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