Hyderabad: In the by-elections, polling for which had taken place on April 17, the ruling parties in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana won. While in Tirupati Lok Sabha by-election, the YSRCP candidate Dr. Gurumurthy made it with a big majority, the TDP’s Panabaka Lakshmii came second with respectable votes. Gurumurthy registered his win with a margin of 2,71,592 votes while the BJP, Congress and the CPM candidates lost their deposits. There was a reduction in the percentage of votes polled, but the percentage of votes received by the YSRCP candidate among the votes polled has gone up compared to the percentage in 2019 elections. It is a respectable win for the YSRCP which has been in power for more than two years. The TDP also proved that it is a force to reckon with and it cannot be written off.
In Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly constituency where the by-poll was needed since the sitting candidate Narasimhulu died, the TRS retained the seat with comfortable majority although the Congress has fielded its stalwart Jana Reddy who lost in 2019. Nomula Bhagat, son of the diseased leader Narasimhaiah, has won by a majority of 18,872 votes in a keen contest. The BJP has lost deposit here also. The Nagarjuna Sagar win was a result of the planning and execution by Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhara Rao (KCR) who took keen interest in retaining the seat for the party. Had he considered it as any other by-election, the Congress candidate would have won. KCR took it as a prestigious contest and mobilized the ground level political forces by putting in a concerted effort.
Ever since the ruling TRS lost Dubbaka seat in a by-election to the BJP and the latter had put up a good show in the elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections, KCR started involving himself in planning and execution in elections. He left Dubbaka to his nephew Harish Rao and the GHMC to his son K. Taraka Rama Rao (KTR). In the elections to the legislative council from graduate constituencies of Mahaboobnagar-Hyderabad-Ranga Reddy and Khammam-Nalgonda- Warangal, it was KCR’s full involvement that made the difference. He had decided to field Vani Devi, daughter of late prime minister PV Narasimha Rao, from Mahaboobnagar-Hyderabad-Ranga Reddy constituency at the last minute and pulled the strings strategically to deny the BJP a sure win. The sitting MLC N. Ramachander Rao lost the election. In Khammam-Nalgonda-Warangal constituency also the sitting MLC Palla Rajeswara Reddy of TRS was given all the support to retain the seat. In the same style, KCR has successfully evolved a strategy to retain Nagarjunasagar seat in spite of the fact that the Congress had fielded a senior leader who won from the constituency several times earlier.
