The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on Tuesday defeated the Congress and the BJP-TDP combine in the Warangal Lok Sabha election with TRS candidate Pasunuri Dayakar winning by a margin of over 4.59 lakh votes.
The Times of India reports that Dayakar polled 6,15,403 votes in contrast to Sarve Satyanarayana of Congress who received 1,56,315 votes.Dr P Devaiah of the BJP got 1,30,178 votes, while Nalla Suryaprakash Reddy of the YSRCP came a woeful fourth with a mere 23,325 votes.As many as 10,44,541 voters had cast their ballots on November 21.
The byelection was held as TRS MP Kadiyam Srihari was given the post of deputy chief minister after the 2014 general election.
The TOI report adds:
Soon after the counting of votes began at 8 am here at the Enumamula agricultural market yard, it became evident that Dayakar was outstripping the other 22 candidates in the fray , including Satyanarayana and Devaiah. The TRS candidate took an early lead securing 32,515 votes in the first round of counting against Congress' 8,175 and BJP's 7,034. Dayakar's numbers never looked back and by the time the third round of counting was completed, the writing was on the wall.
A Deccan Chronicle report adds that Dayakar broke the record of state Chief Minister and TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao who won the Medak Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 3,97,029 votes in last year's general elections.
Dayakar's win has given the TRS 11 seats in the Lok Sabha now.
"Our responsibility now grows. This by-election reflected what the people are thinking about us (our performance). We feel this is a complete support from Warangal people who had also backed us during the statehood agitation and now," a jubilant chief minister was quoted as saying.
A report in The Hindu adds:
The 48-year-old is the youngest of the six children of poor dalit (Madiga) couple late P Prakasham and late P Kamalamma of Bollikunta village of Sangem mandal in the district. He is a bachelor of fine arts from JNTU, Hyderabad and designed the ‘Telangana Talli’ idol which impressed KCR...Though he aspired for MLA ticket from Wardhannapet constituency of which he was in-charge in 2009 and 2014, he did not mind when it was allotted to others and remained loyal to the party.
A big thanks to Warangal. You've inspired us to work more and better.
— K Taraka Rama Rao (@KTRTRS) November 24, 2015
#WarangalByPoll: Huge thanks to people of Telangana for reposing faith on TRS. Our responsibility further increases after this victory!
— Kavitha Kalvakuntla (@RaoKavitha) November 24, 2015
#WarangalByPoll: We now have one more strong voice to represent Telangana in Lok Sabha. Thank you Warangal!
— Kavitha Kalvakuntla (@RaoKavitha) November 24, 2015
#WarangalByPoll: This is a clear positive vote for the vision of our hon'ble CM. pic.twitter.com/MzCKpqLXJ6
— Kavitha Kalvakuntla (@RaoKavitha) November 24, 2015