Jubilee Hills bypoll: Congress posts big win, shot in the arm for Revanth Reddy

Congress candidate V. Naveen Yadav on Friday, 14 November, won the by-election to Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency by a majority of over 24,729 votes.

Yadav secured 98,988 votes, while his nearest Bharat Rashtra Samithi rival Maganti Sunitha got 74,259 votes, election officials said.

BJP nominee Lankala Deepak Reddy, who managed to obtain 17,061 votes, stood third and forfeited his security deposit.

The bypoll was necessitated after the death of BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath in June this year following a heart attack. The party had fielded his widow Sunitha as the candidate.

The strength of the ruling Congress has now gone up to 66 in the 119-member Telangana Assembly. Congress leaders and activists were joyous as Yadav's victory became certain during the counting of votes.

The victory of Congress in this by-election, preceded by its win in the bypoll to Secunderabad Cantonment segment held last year, further strengthens Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy's leadership.

Though the outcome of the by-election will have no bearing on the government's stability, it was seen as a test of the Congress government's popularity.

The Jubilee Hills by-election became crucial for BRS as it drew a blank in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, preceded by its shock defeat in the 2023 assembly polls.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president B. Mahesh Kumar Goud said the party's win in the bypoll is an endorsement of the Revanth Reddy government's performance.

The success of Congress in the bypolls to Secunderabad Cantonment seat last year and Jubilee Hills now shows that the people are satisfied with CM Reddy's leadership and the government's welfare programmes, he said.

"When BRS won zero seats in 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it was clear that it did not have any future in the state. BRS has failed to retain its seat now. The verdict of the people of Jubilee Hills is that BRS has no place in the state," Goud told reporters in Nizamabad.

Speaking to reporters in Delhi, BJP leader and Union Coal Minister G Kishan Reddy said that AIMIM supported the Congress candidate. Of the total four lakh votes in Jubilee Hills, Muslim voters constitute 1.49 lakh.

He further alleged that the Congress and BRS distributed money on a large scale and the state government did not cooperate with the Election Commission.