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
BJP, which could win only one seat in the assembly elections in December last, made impressive gains, netting four Lok Sabha seats.
The bypoll is the first after last year's assembly elections in the state.
Congress had fielded Uttam Kumar Reddy's wife N Padmavati Reddy, a former MLA, and hoped to strengthen its position by winning the bypolls to take on the ruling TRS, but it was not to be.
Padmavati managed to poll only 69,736 votes against Saidi Reddy's 1,13,094.
State Congress vice-presidnent Mallu Ravi alleged the TRS won by distributing money and liquor to turn voters to its side.
The TRS tried to induce or threaten Congress leaders, workers and the voters to gain votes, he claimed in a statement.
Having made surprise gains in the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP sought to put up a decent performance but it ended up securing only 2,638 votes.
The TDP, which has been reduced to the margins in Telangana after a number of its leaders left the party and joined the TRS in the past years, was expecting to revive itself, but it obtained only 1,827 votes.
Independent candidate Sapavath Suman got 2,697 votes, more than the tally of BJP and TDP.
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