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In a major setback to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate M Raghunandan Rao has defeated Solipeta Sujatha in a nail-biting finish to clinch the Dubbaka Assembly seat with a margin of 1,470 votes.
Rao polled 62,772 votes, while Sujatha got 61,302 votes in the by-poll that was necessitated after the sitting MLA Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy died in August. The TRS had decided to field his wife Sujatha in a bid to retain the seat.
Congress candidate Cheruku Srinivas Reddy got 21,819 votes.
In a keenly contested fight, the BJP candidate had taken early lead as counting began on Tuesday morning. Though the TRS made some late gains, it was not enough to recoup the early losses. Rao emerged victorious after getting a majority of votes in the final four rounds.
Though the loss doesn’t impact its tally in the Assembly, the defeat is a public blow for the ruling party and a morale booster for the BJP, which has just one seat in the 119-member Assembly.
The BJP surprised political circles in the 2019 elections by clinching four out of the 17 Lok Sabha seats, signalling its arrival as a major contender in the State’s politics.
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