TRS sweeps Telangana by-polls, wins 11 of 12 seats

It was a landslide victory for the Telangana Rashtra Samiti candidates in 11 out of 12 assembly constituencies that went for by-polls in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh on July 27.

By Saturday morning when the results were announced at the end of a lengthy counting process that began on Friday, some of the TRS victors set new records in the state's electoral history.

For the first time in its political history, the Telugu Desam Party had to forfeit deposits in all the 12 assembly segments while ruling Congress met with the same fate in four constituencies.

In Siddipet in Medak district, T Harish Rao, nephew of TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, set a new record by winning the by-election with a margin of 95,858 votes against his Congress rival Srinivas Goud. The Congress as well as the TDP, which stood third here, lost the deposits.

Harish Rao won from Siddipet for fourth consecutive time. His victory margin is said to be by far the largest margin ever recorded in the assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.

Interestingly, the Medak district administration, led by Collector S Suresh Kumar, also set a record by completing the counting process in just over 90 minutes.

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Another TRS candidate Gaddam Aravinda Reddy too retained his Mancherial seat in Adilabad district with a record margin of 78,047 votes as against 13,827 he got in 2009.

Reddy's victory margin is the second largest after Harish Rao's. The Congress lost its seat in Mancherial as well.

Koppula Easwar, another notable TRS candidate, improved his victory margin from modest 1,484 votes in 2009 to a staggering 58,891 now to bag Dharmapuri seat in Karimnagar district.

TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao's son K Taraka Rama Rao secured a handsome margin of 44,642 votes in the by-election from Siricilla.

It is a sweet victory for Rama Rao this time in more ways than one as he scraped through with a bare margin of just 173 votes against the TRS rebel candidate K K Mahender Reddy in his first electoral battle in 2009.

Mahender Reddy was the Congress' official nominee this time but lost his deposit following the bitter defeat.

TRS' Dasyam Vinay Bhaskar saw his victory margin in Warangal West constituency swell 10-fold -- from 6,684 last year to 67,524 this time.

Similarly, the victory margins of E Rajender and K Vidyasagar Rao have more than tripled in Huzurabad and Korutla Assembly segments as compared to the 2009 general elections.

Rajender secured a majority of 55,360 votes this time compared to 15,035 while Vidyasagar Rao got 56,525 now as against 15,545 in 2009.

The Vemulawada (Karimnagar district) TRS nominee Chennamaneni Ramesh too put up an impressive show, romping home with a margin of 50,451 votes this time.

As the TDP candidate in 2009, Ramesh managed to get a majority of only 1821 votes. Upon quitting his MLA seat on the statehood issue in February this year, Ramesh walked out of the TDP and joined the TRS.

An intervention by the high court, by-election to this seat was conducted along with other segments, paved the way for Ramesh's re-election.

In Chennur (SC) in Adilabad district, TRS candidate N Odelu won by a margin of 44,284 votes almost four times higher than the margin (11,549) he secured in 2009.

The TRS nominee Kaveti Sammaiah too doubled his margin from 7,414 in 2009 to 15,229 now. He beat Congress' ex-MP Indrakaran Reddy who aspired to become a Cabinet minister by winning the by-election.

Another TRS candidate E Ravinder Reddy was, however, not so fortunate as he could improve his victory margin only by a few hundred votes this time. Compared to the 36,859-vote margin he got in 2009, Rajender managed to take it up only to 37,535 in this time.

The results of the five constituencies came late, as ballot papers were used for polling as a number of candidates exceeded the maximum limit of 64 for an EVM.

For Y Lakshminarayana, the lone Bharatiya Janata Party winner in the by-elections who trounced Pradesh Congress Committee president D Srinivas in Nizamabad Urban, it was an improvement of only 966 votes in the victory margin. In 2009, Lakshminarayana won by a margin of 11,015 votes and this time by 11,981 votes.

The by-polls were necessitated as the sitting MLAs -- 10 from the TRS and one each from the TDP and the BJP -- had quit their post in support of separate Telangana demand.