HYDERABAD: In a major upset, BJP candidate M Raghunandan Rao won the Dubbaka byelection by a slender margin of 1,470 votes in a neck and neck race against his rival from the ruling TRS.
The TRS has failed to retain the seat after winning it in the 2018 Assembly elections, while the Congress tasted an ignoble defeat by ending a distant third. The BJP was able to send a message to voters that it was an alternative to the TRS in the state.
BJP candidate M Raghunandan Rao secured 62,772 votes and TRS candidate S Sujatha got 61,302 votes. Congress candidate Ch Srinivas Reddy got just 21,819 votes.
This is the first ever defeat for the TRS in a byelection after the 2014 polls. The TRS had been winning all the byelections either to the Lok Sabha or the Assembly with thumping majorities.
Moreover, the defeat of the TRS was registered in the home turf of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. Gajwel Assembly segment which was represented by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was also in Siddipet district.
Winning on KCR's home turf was a major victory for the BJP. BJP state president Bandi Sanjay said that it was a mandate given by the people against the TRS' family rule.
"The outcome of the poll was not on expected lines. We will review the verdict and script our future strategies," TRS working president and Municipal Minister KT Rama Rao said, pointing out that leaders and workers too had to make an introspection over the defeat of the party.
An elated Bandi Sanjay said the BJP's victory is the beginning of the end of the tyrannical rule of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.