TRS makes clean sweep in bypolls

There was jubilation and excitement in the Telangana Bhavan here on Friday as leaders and workers burst crackers, distributed sweets among themsleves and rejoiced as the winning results of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (Trs) candidates in the July 27 bypolls trickled in. 

The Trs swept the by-elections to 12 seats in the Telangana region, winning six and was leading in six other constituencies where counting was still in progress before the report went to the press.

Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Lakshminarayana defeated the state Congress chief D Srinivas in Nizamabad Urban segment. It was big blow for Srinivas who was aiming to join the state cabinet as deputy chief minister and hoping to succeed Chief Minister K Rosaiah.

The elections proved that the Telangana sentiment is vigorous as the Trs retained Siddipet, Sirpur, Manchiryal, Dharmapuri and Chennur seats with huge margin votes and wrested Vemulawada seat from Telugu Desam Party.

Trs leader T Harish Rao set a record by retaining Siddipet with a margin of 95,858 votes, breaking the record of former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, who was re-elected from Pulivendula constituency in Kadapa last year with a margin of 68,681. The Congress and Telugu Desam candidates in Siddpet lost their deposits.

The Congress and the Opposition TDP were virtually faced a rout in the bypolls which was necessitated by the resignation of all 10 Trs legislators and one BJP and a TDP leader on the issue of a separate state in February.

In a majority of the constituencies, Congress and TDP candidates lost their security deposits. The prominent losers include former ministers G Vinod (Cong) and Babu Mohan (TDP). Another former minister and Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir was trailing in Yellareddy constituency.