HYDERABAD: After the Huzurnagar bypoll witnessed a massive 84 per cent voter turnout on Monday, leaders of both the ruling TRS and the Congress will now have to wait with bated breath for the outcome of what looked like a neck and neck battle. For the record, though, both the pink party and the grand old party are exuding confidence that it is their candidate who is sure to emerge the winner when the Election Commission announces the result on Thursday.
After the polling process was completed, both the parties analysed the trends and claimed that their candidate would win the seat comfortably. The percentage of votes polled in the bypoll was more or less equal to the percentage of votes polled in 2018 elections. A pre-poll survey conducted by AARAA predicted a TRS victory with its candidate Saidi Reddy getting 50.48 per cent votes, followed by Congress’ N Padmavathi Reddy with 39.95 per cent voters and others getting 9.57 per cent votes.
Speaking to Express, Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy exuded confidence that TRS candidate S Saidi Reddy would win with a comfortable majority.
Ahead of the poll, Jagadish Reddy, along with TRS general secretary Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, campaigned vigorously for Saidi Reddy. "We are expecting our candidate to win with 15 per cent margin of votes. People supported the welfare and development works of the government. People of Huzurnagar are with KCR. KCR’s schemes will ensure victory for TRS," he explained.
In the last six years, the TRS won each and every byelection and even grabbed Narayankhed Assembly segment from the Congress. It remains to be seen if the ruling party will continue with the same trend and win the Huzurnagar seat for the first time.
Congress candidate Padmavathi Reddy too claimed that the people supported her party and there was a "silent wave towards the Congress". Sounding confident of winning the seat, which was vacated by her husband and TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy following his election to the Lok Sabha, she said that that it was "an anti-KCR vote in Huzurnagar".