HYDERABAD: Incorporating all elements of a thrilling car chase, the TRS ‘car’ stormed past all other contestants, setting the tracks on fire and snatching another thrilling victory for the Pink Party, in the race to conquer Warangal Lok Sabha seat, the heartland of Telangana.
It was an emphatic victory for Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, as his party candidate Pasunuri Dayakar trounced his opponents from the Congress and the TDP-BJP combine by a margin of a whopping 4.5 lakh votes. The victory margin, 4,59,092, was the seventh biggest victory margin in the history of elections in India. The nearest rival was the Congress’ Sarve Satyanarayana, who managed to garner around 1.56 lakh votes, followed by the BJP’s Devaiah, who polled 1.30 lakh-plus votes.
In the 2014 election, Kadiyam Srihari of the TRS won the Warangal seat with a margin of over 3.92 lakh votes but fighting adversities, Dayakar bettered the margin. The victory came at a time when the Opposition parties were cornering the government over farmer suicides. The by-election has proved that the popularity of the TRS has not taken a beating.
Though all political parties were sure about the TRS victory, no one, including the ruling party, expected such a landslide. All Opposition parties were in for a shock as Dayakar raced past Srihari’s victory margin. The Congress, the TDP-BJP combine, YSRC and the Left were left stupefied.