In a closely contested race, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) beat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by a decent margin in the bye-election to Telangana's Munugode. TRS candidate Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy defeated BJP candidate Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, the former Munugode MLA whose switch from Congress to BJP necessitated the election, by 10,309 votes. The loss has come as a major setback for the BJP which had engineered the defection and forced the bye-poll, as the party thought a win in Munugode would set the tone in their favour during the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections.
While the TRS and BJP had a tight contest, the Congress party was practically out of the race with Congress candidate Palvai Sravanthi Reddy securing only 23864 votes.
At the end of 15 rounds, the TRS secured 96598 votes while its nearest rival BJP got 86485 votes. The process of counting votes polled in the high-stakes bye-election held on November 3 to the Munugode Assembly constituency in Nalgonda district began on Sunday morning amid tight security. Over 93% voter turnout was reported in the bye-poll held on November 3, which saw 47 candidates in the fray.
The BJP and the ruling TRS had been campaigning aggressively in Munugode over the past few weeks. The election campaign was intense and bitterly fought between the BJP and the TRS. The contest assumes political significance as the winner is expected to have an edge over the others ahead of the Assembly polls in Telangana next year.
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The TRS had deployed about 80 leaders including Ministers, MPs and MLAs for intensive campaigning. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao addressed two public meetings in Munugode. TRS working president KT Rama Rao, and state Finance and Health Minister T Harish Rao also addressed a couple of meetings and road shows to bolster the ruling party's campaign.
TRS and Congress had alleged that Rajagopal Reddy resigned from Congress and joined BJP for a contract worth Rs 18,000 crore awarded by the BJP-led union government to his family-owned company. The BJP candidate, however, denied these allegations and claimed that he resigned for the development of the constituency as it was neglected by the TRS government. The BJP was on the defensive as TRS leaders also slammed it for seeking votes without the Union government sanctioning any projects for Telangana in the last eight years.
The arrest of three alleged agents of BJP in Hyderabad last week while trying to buy four MLAs of TRS caused huge embarrassment to the party in the midst of the campaign. One of the TRS MLAs Pilot Rohit Reddy, who had tipped off the police, claimed that the accused offered Rs 100 crore to him and Rs 50 crore each to three other MLAs to join BJP. The BJP called the arrests a drama by TRS due to fear of defeat in Munugode and even moved the High court seeking a CBI probe.
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