Bypoll Boost For BRS: TRS wins Munugodu

Hyderabad: The TRS, now rechristened as Bharat Rashtra Samithi, on Sunday clinched the first big victory by defeating the BJP by a margin of over 10,000 votes in the Munugodu Assembly byelection.

Though the BJP certainly gave a tough fight in the byelection, the ruling TRS pulled a fast one with the support of the Left parties in the bypoll in which party candidate K Prabhakar Reddy won over BJP's Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao's political strategy to reinvigorate the BRS by uniting all dissenting leaders helped the party winning the high-voltage election. Though the BJP claimed that the TRS has misused police and official machinery on the polling day, the TRS candidate could get 10,300 majority. The BJP could show its upper hand only in about four rounds. The TRS secured 96,598 votes, BJP (86,485) and Congress candidate Palvai Sravanthi lost deposit as she got only 23,864 votes.

It was a neck and neck between the TRS and BJP from the first round to the 15th round. In the first round and postal ballots, the TRS secured majority votes and in the second and third rounds, the BJP had shown upper hand. Soon after the completion of the counting of votes from Choutuppal mandal, the BJP candidate left the counting venue and expressed his disappointment for getting a thin majority in the mandal which was his stronghold.

The TRS continued its winning spree gaining a slight majority in every round till the end of the 15th round. The BJP was unhappy that the Election Commission was delaying the announcement of results in time during the first four rounds. At one point, Union Minister for Tourism and Culture G Kishan Reddy spoke to the CEO Vikas Raj over phone and questioned him for not releasing the results within minutes after the Returning Officer releases the results. The CEO directed the RO to be fast.

The TRS secured a good number of votes in villages while the BJP performed well in urban areas like Chandur and Munugodu. Voters in the rural mandals of Nampalli and Gattupal supported the TRS. The TRS candidate secured 345 vote majority in his native village of Lingavarigudem.In a disappointment to the TRS, the BJP had polled more number of votes in the villages where the Ministers - V Srinivas Goud, Ch Malla Reddy and V Prashant Reddy -- were party in-charges of Lingojiguda, Aregudem, Devulamma Nagaram, etc.