Hyderabad: In the end, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) breached a strong Congress bastion and swept the Huzurnagar byelection by a record margin of 43,233 votes.
TRS candidate S. Saidi Reddy won a one-sided mandate against Congress candidate Padmavathi Reddy, wife of TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy. Except the Congress, all remaining 26 candidates who were in the fray, including the BJP and the Telugu Desam, have lost their deposits.
The BJP, which has started claiming to being an emerging alternative to the TRS in Telangana, secured fourth position.
The third place, interestingly, went to Sapavath Suman, an independent candidate, who despite losing deposit, got more votes than the BJP and the Telugu Desam.
In Huzurnagar, the TRS secured 56.45 per cent votes while the Congress receiv-ed 34.60 per cent.
Out of 2,00,239 valid votes, Mr Saidi Reddy of TRS polled 1,12,796 votes, Congress ca-ndidate Mrs Reddy polled 69,563 votes. Other candidates, including Sapavath Suman (with 2,693 votes), BJP candidate Kota Rama Rao (2,621) and TD candidate Chava Kiranmayi (1,827), were left far behind.
TRS candidate Saidi Reddy took a lead from the very first round of counting, and stayed, with his lead increasing with each round, till the final 22nd round. Congress was unable to get a lead over the TRS in even a single round.
The victory in Huzurnagar byelection brings great relief to the TRS, wherein it has reaffirmed its pole position in Telangana state politics, after big setbacks in the Lok Sabha elections.
After the creation of Huzurnagar Assembly constituency in 2009, Congress candidate Uttam Kumar Reddy won with 29,194 votes majority. In the subsequent elections in 2014 and 2018 Assembly elections too, Mr Reddy won but his majority kept coming down. Today’s results have shifted the balance. It is the first time since the creation of Huzurnagar Assembly constituency that a TRS candidate won, and the Congress was defeated.
Most political analysts had argued that any bypolls in the shadow of the issue of the RTC strike, in which striking employees found support from several sections, including government employees, would render a TRS win difficult. Defying all such predictions, the TRS kept its track record of winning byelections intact.
After the TRS came to power in 2014, two byelections were held for the Narayankhed and Palair assembly seats due to death of Congress MLAs. The TRS won both seats, defying the argument of sympathy vote. The Huzurnagar Assembly bypoll was necessitated because incumbent MLA, Uttam Kumar Reddy, resigned after he was elected as an MP from the Nalgonda Lok Sabha seat.
In the 2018 Assembly elections, Mr Reddy defeated Mr Saidi Reddy. Ms Padmavathi Reddy, who was an MLA in neighbouring Kodad, also lost in the 2018 elections. Mr Saidi Reddy, by settling the scores and notching an impressive win, has left few doubts – he is a young rising star in the party.
