The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has won the Huzurnagar Assembly byelection as its candidate S Saidi Reddy defeated his Congress rival N Padmavathi with majority of over 43,000 votes.

The TRS candidate, who lost the earlier election with a difference of 7,000 votes, was polled 1,12,796 votes. Both Bharatiya Janata Party and Telugu Desam Party candidates lost their deposits.

Though the TRS has huge strength in the Assembly with 110 legislators in the 119-member Assembly, the Huzurnagar victory brings cheers to TRS President and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who is facing one of the first challenge in the form of strike by 50,000 employees of the Road Transport Corporation.

“It means a lot for us. It will act as a tonic to us,” the Chief Minister said, reacting to the bypoll results.

Losing this seat to the ruling party will be a huge embarrassment to the Congress.

The bypoll was necessitated following the resignation of Pradesh Congress Committee President Uttam Kumar Reddy after he won the Nalgonda Lok Sabha election.The Congress fielded his wife Padmavathi in a bid to retain the seat that always voted for Congress.

It's a loss of face to the BJP, which has been trying to emerge as an alternative to the TRS in the State, too. The party was just polled 2,621. The TDP candidate, Chava Kiranmayi, was polled about 1,827 votes.

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