Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) candidate, K Prabhakar Reddy, has won the key bypoll seat in Telangana's Munugode constituency with a vast margin of over 9,000 votes as per Election Commission of India's (ECI) figures at 7 pm.
The TRS' win has come as a big blow to the BJP whose candidate Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy – previously with the Congress party – lost his sitting seat. Raj Gopal Reddy had resigned from Congress to join the BJP, making by-election necessary in the Munugode seat.
For the pink party, which has been accusing the BJP of attempting to poach four of its MLAs before the by-election, the win has come as a boost.
The campaigns, ahead of the Munugode bypoll, saw heavy spending by both the TRS and the BJP, reported NDTV.
Did the Left-Congress Help TRS Victory?
Supporters and workers of the TRS celebrated the victory at the party headquarters in Hyderabad.
Over 93 percent polling was reported in the bypoll, which was held on 3 November.
Munugode was, till recently, a traditional Congress bastion where the Communist parties, too, have had a stake. Congress' candidate, Palavai Sravanthi, however, came third polling just 23,845 votes, as per the ECI, at 7pm on Sunday. The Congress retaining some of its votes in the constituency did, however, help the TRS cement its victory.
On 6 November, as the lead became clear, leaders of both the CPI(M) and CPI, celebrated the BJP's loss, indicating that the red parties too had contributed to the TRS' win in the constituency.
Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy's loss could also be a blessing for the Congress, as the candidate's brother Komatireddy Venkat Reddy had been at loggerheads with the grand old party's state leadership. If Raj Gopal Reddy had retained his seat on a BJP ticket, Venkat Reddy could have made a move to abandon the Congress for greener pastures.
Meanwhile, following TRS' victory, the party leadership called it the first win of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), the national party which Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had floated just before the bypolls. Though the TRS morphed into BRS in September, the bypoll was, however, fought in the party's state avatar's name.
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