After facing a stiff challenge from Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in the initial rounds of counting, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) clinched victory at Munugode with 96598 votes. TRS' Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy was earlier upbeat about winning the election but it has been a close contest as TRS opened with a slender lead over BJP. Telangana Home Minister and TRS senior leader Mahmood Ali stated that it was very important to win for TRS at Munugode. Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao thanked voters of Munugode, all the leaders and workers who worked for the victory of the party. He also thanked CPI CPM parties for supporting TRS in the bypolls.
The celebrations at Telangana Bhavan in Hyderabad started well ahead of EC declaring TRS as winners. The TRS maintained a good lead over BJP and Congress as the passing of rounds for the counting of votes.
Starting from the first round, TRS maintained a slender lead but as the rounds of counting passed the lead margin has increased. Taking to Twitter, Telangana Minister Harish Rao put out his image with a caption reading "Telangana with KCR".
Also read | Munugode Byelection: I Am 100% Confident Of Winning, Says TRS Candidate Prabhakar Reddy
On the flip side, BJP's Munugode candidate Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy has conceded defeat and accepted people's verdict even when two more rounds of counting were left. Rajgopal alleged ruling TRS government of luring people with money and liquor. He further said that TRS misused official machinery to influence the voters. Though there are 47 candidates in the fray, all eyes were on the ruling TRS and BJP who aggressively campaigned.
As reported earlier, after leading in the first and the second rounds, TRS candidate Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy asserted that TRS will win Munugode by-election. The by-poll was declared after sitting MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy quit Congress in August to join BJP. He contested the by-poll on a BJP ticket.