Big victory for TRS in Telangana's Huzurnagar bypoll

Sanampudi Saidi Reddy of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) won the Huzurnagar Assembly seat by defeating his nearest rival, Congress' N Padmavathi Reddy, by a margin of over 43,233 votes.

Out of the 2,00,239 votes polled in the bypoll held on 21 October, the TRS got 1,13,095 (56.34 %) votes. The Congress' vote share stood at 34.74% whereas the BJP (2,639) and the TDP (1,827) candidates lost their deposits.

The by-election, held on Monday, was necessitated by the resignation of TPCC Chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy from the seat following his election as MP from Nalgonda. The Congress pitted his wife Padmavathi against Saidi Reddy, who had lost the 2018 Assembly election by a margin of a little over 7,000 votes.

“Voters have thought thoroughly and voted. At a time when there were suspicions on us, people gave a tonic to the TRS to work with renewed vigour,” said TRS Chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao while addressing the media at the TRS headquarters here after the result was declared. KCR, who will be addressing a public meeting in Huzurnagar on 26 October, assured the people of the assembly segment that he will fulfil the aspiration of its people.

He further urged the Opposition leaders to not make baseless allegations. “We are a new state. Our roles might change, but the state is permanent, please don’t curse the state. I told them (the Opposition) that it will boomerang, it came true in Huzurnagar,” KCR said.

No Impact of the TSRTC strike

The TRS victory in Huzurnagar, the first by-election after the TRS came to power for a second term proved that the ongoing TSRTC workers' strike has had no impact on the image of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. It was believed that the strike would adversely affect the winning chances of the TRS candidate. The local TRS cadre was also disheartened as KCR has to cancel the public meeting due to heavy downpour in Huzurnagar. “Voters of Huzurnagar have shown that the people of Telangana are always with KCR despite the negative campaign unleashed by the entire opposition,” Saidi Reddy told reporters.

Meanwhile, celebrations broke out across Telangana on Thursday with TRS activists bursting crackers to celebrate the party candidate’s thumping victory at the party headquarters and other major cities of the state.