Hyderabad, 14 Nov

Congress candidate V Naveen Yadav on Friday won the by-election to Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency here, defeating his nearest BRS rival Maganti Sunitha by a margin of over 24,000 votes.

Yadav secured 98,988 votes, while the BRS nominee got 74,259 votes.

BJP candidate Lankala Deepak Reddy, who managed to get only 17,061 votes, forfeited his security deposit.

The voter turnout for the by-elections held on 11 Novemberwas 1,94,631.

The bypoll was necessitated by the death of BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath in June this year. BRS fielded his widow Sunitha as its candidate.

Yadav had consistently maintained his lead over his BRS rival in all the rounds during the counting of votes at the Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy indoor stadium here.

Consequent to the Jubilee Hills win, the strength of ruling Congress rose to 66 in 119-member Telangana Assembly.

Congress leaders and activists were in joy as Yadav's victory became certain during the counting of votes.

They burst crackers and distributed sweets at Gandhi Bhavan here, the headquarters of Congress in Telangana.

The victory of Congress in Jubilee Hills by-election, preceded by its win in the bypoll to Secunderabad Cantonment segment held last year, further strengthens Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy's leadership.

Though the outcome of the by-election would have no bearing on the government's stability, it was seen as a test of the Congress government's popularity.

The Jubilee Hills by-election became crucial for BRS as it drew a blank in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, preceded by its shock defeat in the 2023 assembly polls.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president B Mahesh Kumar Goud said the party candidate's win in the bypoll is an endorsement of the Revanth Reddy government's performance.

The success of Congress in the bypolls to Secunderabad Cantonment seat last year and Jubilee Hills now shows that the people are satisfied with CM Reddy's leadership and the government's welfare programmes, he said.

"When BRS won zero seats in 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it was clear that it did not have any future in the state. BRS has failed to retain its seat now. The verdict of the people of Jubilee Hills is that BRS has no place in the state," Goud told reporters in Nizamabad.

The Congress government would work as per the aspirations of the people for the remaining three years of its current tenure and the party would win 100 of the total 119 seats in the next assembly polls in 2028 , he said.

BRS Working President K T Rama Rao said the bypoll result unambiguously showed that his party is the alternative to the ruling Congress.

Asserting that the BRS has effectively exposed the Congress government's failure during the last two years, he said the grand old party did not win any bypolls from 2014 to 2023, but managed to come to power in the assembly polls in 2023.

Speaking to reporters in Delhi, BJP leader and Union Coal Minister G Kishan Reddy pointed out that the AIMIM supported the Congress candidate. Of the total four lakh votes in Jubilee Hills, Muslim voters constitute 1.49 lakh.

Moreover, the Congress and BRS distributed money on a large scale and the state government did not cooperate with the Election Commission, he alleged, favouring elimination of money power in the elections.