Hyderabad: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Eatala Rajender won by a margin of 23,855 votes against TRS’s G Srinivas Yadav in the Huzurabad bypoll.
TRS working president and minister Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao, or KTR, thanked state ministers, MLAs and party ranks who worked for the party in the Huzurabad election.
KTR, who is the son of party president and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said that the TRS had seen many ups and downs in the last 20 years of its political journey and denied that a “single election’s result would have any impact” on it. KTR asked party workers to “show even more commitment and move forward to face the challenges that lie ahead in the future”.
Interestingly, KTR kept himself away from ten campaigns in Huzurabad and it was his cousin and state finance minister T Harish Rao who was taking care of the poll campaigns.
The Huzurabad bypoll had become a prestige issue for TRS, as party chief and CM KCR himself was strategizing against his friend-turned-foe Rajender. Eatala Rajender, a six-time MLA, had resigned from the Assembly earlier this year, quit TRS and joined the BJP.
In the 2018 Huzurabad Assembly polls, Rajender got 1,04,840 votes on a TRS ticket and defeated the Congress candidate with a margin of 43,719.
The BJP in 2018 had got only 1,683 votes in Huzurabad and lost its deposit. In the 2021 bypoll, Rajender got 1,06,780 votes.
This time, Congress secured only 3,012 votes and lost its deposit.
Eatala Rajender, along with KCR and others, had formed the TRS to demand the separate state of Telangana. Rajender served as a Cabinet colleague of KCR. Earlier this year, the relation between the CM and Rajender became bitter, leading to KCR sacking him from the Cabinet and launching several investigations against him.
Reacting to the victory, BJP’s Krishnasagar Rao said: “This victory is a victory of democracy. TRS’s abuse of power, distribution of money, and political vengeance have been defeated.”
Meanwhile Union home minister Amit Shah called Telangana unit chief and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar and expressed his joy over the party’s performance in the election. Rajender, along with Sanjay and other senior leaders, is likely to meet Shah in Delhi on Wednesday.
In the 2020 Dubbaka by-election, too, BJP defeated TRS, followed by its impressive performance in GHMC polls.
Telangana is scheduled to go for the Assembly polls in 2023.
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