After the TRS’ loss in the Huzurabad bye-polls on Tuesday, November 2, the party’s working president and Minister of Municipal Administration and Urban Development KT Rama Rao downplayed the defeat saying that the result was not much of significance. In the bye-poll, BJP’s Eatala Rajender, the former Health Minister, won with a massive majority of over 23,000 votes.
Thanking TRS MLAs T Harish Rao, Koppula Eashwar, Gangula Kamalakar and TRS activists who had led the campaign for the bye-poll, KTR in a tweet said, “In the last 20 years, TRS has seen many highs and lows and this one election result will not be of much significance or consequence. My compliments to @GelluSrinuTRS on a spirited fight. Appeal to all TRS workers to work with increased resolve to forge ahead in future battles.”
In the last 20 years TRS has seen many highs and lows & this one election result will not be of much significance or consequence
— KTR (@KTRTRS) November 2, 2021
My compliments to @GelluSrinuTRS on a spirited fight
Appeal to all TRS workers to work with increased resolve to forge ahead in future battles
Finance Minister T Harish Rao, who was leading the TRS campaign said that he would accept people’s verdict with all humility and thanked everyone who voted for the party. Asking the TRS cadre not to be demotivated, he said there was not much reduction in TRS vote share, and further alleged that BJP and Congress had colluded to defeat TRS.
In the election, Eatala secured 1,07,022 votes while TRS candidate Gellu Srinivas got 83167. The Congress lost its deposit and stood at a distance third. The party’s candidate Balamoor Venkat secured a mere 3,014 votes. The Congress’ vote share fell drastically from 34.60% in 2018 to 1.4%.
Reacting to the defeat, Telangana Congress president Revanth Reddy said that he would take the blame for the poor performance of the party. He said that the party would introspect and analyse their performance. Revanth said that the bye-poll verdict would not decide the future of the party. “In the earlier Assembly election, the BJP with 1,600 votes was nowhere to be seen, and now it has won this election. Even in the recent Nagarjuna Sagar bye-election, the BJP failed to show up,” the Congress president said.
Eatala Rajender, who extracted a sweet revenge with a thumping victory said, “The victory was historic. This is a slap on the face of KCR. It is a condemnation of the gross abuse of authority, distribution of money, and a host of poll code violations.”
BJP state chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar said the BJP won Huzurabad despite all the unfair means adopted by the TRS. He alleged that the ruling party misused official machinery and tried to lure the voters. He thanked the voters for reposing faith in BJP and voting for Rajender. He also thanked all the BJP leaders and workers who worked hard to ensure the party's victory.
The bye-poll was necessitated after Eatala resigned as the MLA and snapped his association with the TRS party. He was accused of land encroachment and unceremoniously sacked from the cabinet.