KT Rama Rao, son of TRS leader and incumbent Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, has yet again beaten Congress’ KK Mahender Reddy in the Sircilla constituency with a thumping majority of 1,21,758 votes. Last year too, he won with a majority of a whopping 68,219 votes. This is the second time TRS rebel Mahender Reddy has lost to KTR. He secured 34,850 votes. In 2009, KTR beat him by a razor-thin margin of 171 votes.
A big win
Sircilla had been KTR’s stronghold since he first won from there in 2009. In the previous cabinet, he was the Minister for Information Technology, Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Industries & Commerce, Mines & Geology, Public Enterprises and NRI Affairs.
In 2009, Mahender Reddy, a TRS rebel who contested as an Independent candidate, lost by a razor-thin margin of 171 votes to KTR. KTR, then MLA, was one of 12 MLAs to resign from his seat in 2010 over the demand for a separate Telangana state.
When the byepolls were held that year, KTR won with a thumping majority, with a margin of a whopping 68,219 votes. At the time of the byepolls, Mahender Reddy had joined the Congress, but didn’t get a ticket in 2014.
This year, however, he was fielded by Congress owing to the popularity he enjoyed for his work in the constituency. But this has been trumped by KTR’s popularity in the constituency.
Several voters from the constituency said that they were extremely happy with the development KTR brought to the town, giving him this major win. Not just in Sircilla, KTR has been the face of the government in state. He has been lauded for introducing several IT and startup-friendly policies and initiatives in the state, right from setting up an innovation cell to the establishment of startup engine T-Hub, which helped put Hyderabad on the global startup map.
KTR has also been the only state minister to ever be invited to speak at the World Economic Forum on the policies implemented in the state. It remains to be seen what role KTR is given in the cabinet that will be formed and if he will continue to hold key portfolios. Speculation is also rife that KTR may be made the Chief Minister of the state, while KCR concentrates on national politics.