Bypoll Showed BRS Is Only Alternative In State: KTR

HYDERABAD: BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao on Friday said the outcome in the Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency byelection firmly demonstrated that the BRS was the only alternative party in the state.

Addressing a press conference at the party office in the wake of the Congress’ win in the bypoll, Rama Rao said, “this poll has given us new strength. People have made it clear that the only alternative in the state is the BRS and this became amply clear in Jubilee Hills.”

Rama Rao said just as any other party, the BRS too had contested hoping to win. Thanking all party leaders and workers who worked for party candidate Maganti Sunitha’s campaign, Rama Rao said: “Our leader KCR always tells us that whatever the result in an election, it is the people who should win. We thank everyone who voted for the BRS. To those who did not, we thank them for recognising us as the primary opposition.”

He also said that there needed to be a public discussion on how the bypoll was held. “We constantly took (issues) to the notice of the Election Commission, asking it to ensure a free and fair election. We did all our efforts, including informing the EC how the Congress candidate’s brother had three votes,” he said.

Rama Rao said the BRS over the past two years had performed its role in an exemplary manner as the primary opposition both inside and outside the Assembly, raising important issues of public importance and government’s failures. “We set the agenda for the election in Jubilee Hills by making people’s problems our agenda. We fought sincerely and in a civil manner. We will continue our role as an effective opposition in future too,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sunitha speaking with reporters, accused the Congress of winning the election using unfair methods, including rigging of votes. “It is a moral victory for the BRS. They attacked a woman candidate in every possible way, and rowdyism ruled with Congress using thugs to force people to vote for it.”

“It is only because of rigging that Congress gained leads in all the divisions,” she said. “As long as Gopinath was alive, rowdies hid in their burrows, and now they are out in the open,” Sunitha said, referring to her husband whose death necessitated the byelection.