HYDERABAD : N Naveen Kumar Reddy, the Opposition BRS candidate, won the Mahbubnagar local bodies constituency MLC byelection on Sunday. The BRS candidate was victorious by a margin of 109 votes. This is the first win registered by the BRS after its defeat in the Assembly elections after ruling the state for 10 years.
The bypoll was necessitated due to the resignation of Kasireddy Narayana Reddy after he was elected as an MLA on a Congress ticket. Narayana Reddy joined the Congress from the BRS and won from the Kalwakurthy segment.
The bypoll for the Mahabubnagar Local Authorities segment was held on March 29 and the counting of votes was postponed due to the model code of conduct, which was in place for the Lok Sabha elections. The counting of votes took place on Sunday.
Of the 1,439 votes, 1,437 voters participated in the polling and 21 votes were found to be invalid. BRS candidate Naveen Reddy bagged 762 votes while Congress’ M Jeevan Reddy got 653 votes. Independent candidate Sudharshan Goud got one vote. The target fixed for the election was 709 votes. As the BRS candidate got 762 votes in the first round itself, the officials declared him elected.
Naveen Kumar Reddy later met BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao at the latter’s residence here.
Commenting on the victory of BRS candidate, party working president KT Rama Rao said that it was a significant change in the political scenario in the state, as the party won the MLC seat in Mahbubnagar, the native district of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy. This win would lead to several other victories for the party in future, the BRS working president claimed.