Khammam: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which bagged a mere 4,041 votes in 2014 elections in Palair, seems to have strengthened its base in Khammam district, which is known as having poor Telangana sentiment.
The Palair result has cheered up the the party leadership, minister for IT K.T. Rama Rao and R&B minister Tummala Nageswara Rao four various reasons.
It has increased the strength of the party to seven, in a total of 10 MLAs, in Khammam district.
The party got a majority of 45,682 votes, a record in Palair. Never in the history of Palair has a candidate won with such a huge margin. Earlier, Kalthula Santaiah, Congress, won from Palair with 25,452 votes and it is the highest margin recorded so far. Mr Tummala Nageswara Rao created a new record by winning the seat with such a huge margin.
In 2014 elections, the TRS won only one seat (Jalagam Venkat Rao) in Khammam district but now, it has seven MLA seats in its kitty. Three YSR Congress MLAs Thati Venkateswarlu, Payam Venkateswarlu and Madanlal and two Congress MLAs Koram Kanakaiah and Puvvada Ajay Kumar, joined the TRS at different times since 2014.
Palair is the second seat the TRS wrested from the Congress in the bypoll. TRS district president Budan Baig said, "Our party secured 94,940 votes in the by-election. In 2014, the TRS won only 4,041 votes, which means the party has its hold in every mandal in Palair."
The 2014 election had disturbed Mr Tummala Nageswara Rao as he was defeated in Khammam Assembly segment and he could not get a berth in the Cabinet. Mr Rao wanted to prove his abilities by winning directly from an Assembly segment and Palair helped him in fulfilling this aspiration.
For industries minister K.T. Rama Rao, who was the in-charge of Palair bypolls, the victory has helped him in growing more confident of his strategies in handling the party affairs. During the election campaign, he said, "The TRS will win in the election with a respectable majority."
Accordingly, the TRS secured 55.60 per cent of votes against 28.86 per cent polled by the Congress candidate followed by 9.01 polled by the CPM candidate.
During the polls, Mr Rama Rao camped for more than 10 days in the segment and interacted with the farmers and cleared their doubts on various irrigation projects. He also spoke to the youth in the segment.
