The impressive victory of ruling TRS in the bypoll to Huzurnagar Assembly constituency on Thursday has come as a boost to the party after it yielded ground to the Congress and BJP in the Lok Sabha elections in April.
The outcome is more sweeter for TRS as it breached a stronghold of Congress. State Congress president Uttam Kumar Reddy, whose resignation following his election to Lok Sabha in April caused the bypoll, had won the Huzurnagar seat in 2009, 2014 and 2018.
On the other hand, it was disappointment for the opposition parties Congress, BJP and TDP in the bypoll where TRS nominee S Saidi Reddy won by a margin of over 43,000 votes. BJP and TDP put up a dismal show, bagging lesser votes that an independent.
The win enabled the TRS to claim a stamp of approval to its governance with Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao saying it would act as a 'tonic' to his government.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi enjoys a massive majority in the 120-member assembly having a strength of 100.
Yet, the Huzurnagar bypoll was crucial for TRS to reaffirm its dominance in state politics after the party had suffered an unexpected setback in the Lok Sabha polls.
Amid expectations that it would sweep the polls, the party ended up with only 12 of the 19 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Congress, which suffered a shock defeat in the assembly polls, recovered and won three Lok Sabha seats