New Delhi: Telangana IT minister KT Rama Rao thanked all the voters and leaders after the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) won the high-voltage Munugode bypoll on Sunday.
“I thank the voters of Munugode, all the leaders and workers who worked for the victory of the party. I thank Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist), both the parties which supported TRS in the bypolls,” KTR said.
Slamming the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), the minister said, “BJP lost the elections because of their arrogance. There is no death in politics, only death by suicide and that is what BJP has done.”
After a stiff challenge from BJP, TRS clinched the Munugode seat 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 the saffron party.
The byelection to this seat was necessitated after sitting MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy quit Congress in August to join BJP.
While 47 candidates were in the fray, eyes were on BJP's Rajagopal Reddy, former TRS MLA Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy and Congress' Palvai Sravanthi who have aggressively campaigned.
Meanwhile, Telangana Bhavan, the state headquarters of TRS, wore a festive look as the jubilant TRS cadre broke into celebrations even before the party win.
A large number of TRS supporters gathered at Telangana Bhavan as they danced to drum-beats, burst crackers and distributed sweets, terming the victory as the stepping stone for the party’s entry to national politics. They kept chanting the slogans of “Jai KCR, Jai Telangana” and “Desh ki Netha KCR”.
It is to be noted that earlier in the day, BJP's Munugode candidate Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy had conceded defeat and accepted people's verdict even when two more rounds of counting were left.
(With Inputs From Ashish Kumar Pandey)