Continuing its winning streak, the TRS created a record of sorts by winning the Narayankhed Assembly seat in Medak district for the first time, with a huge margin.
Continuing its winning streak, the TRS created a record of sorts by winning the Narayankhed Assembly seat in Medak district for the first time, with a huge margin. This is the first seat that the TRS has wrested from the Opposition in the byelections after it came to power. The bypoll was held on February 13 and the results were announced on Tuesday.
TRS’ Mahareddy Bhupal Reddy defeated, by 53,625 votes, the Congress’ Patlolla Sanjeeva Reddy, son of Congress MLA P. Kista Reddy, whose death necessitated the byelection. TDP candidate M. Vijaypal Reddy, the brother of the winner, came third and lost his deposit. The TRS led all the 21 rounds of counting.
In the 13 elections held since 1957, the Congress and the Telugu Desam had won four times each, and Independents had won five times.
In the process, the TRS broke the stranglehold of two families — the Shetkars and the Kista Reddys — on the backward and Telangana’s only faction-ridden constituency. Irrigation minister T. Harish Rao said the thumping victory indicated the immense public faith in chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and the TRS government. “It’s a birthday gift for KCR garu from the people of Narayankhed,” he said.
The chief minister, who is away in Khammam, congratulated Mr Harish Rao and his team for the big win.
In a Twitter message, minister K.T. Rama Rao wrote: “TRS juggernaut continues to roll unabated. Thumping majority of over 50k in Narayankhed. Congrats @trsharish & Medak leadership team”.
A couple of months before the polls, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao and his team led by Mr Harish Rao had taken up developmental programmes a couple of months before the polls.
