BJP wins Dubbak bypolls: KTR says verdict will serve as an eye opener

Hyderabad: TRS working president KT Rama Rao on Tuesday said the Dubbak verdict would serve as an eye-opener for the party. “It has alerted us to be more cautious in the coming days.”

After 23 rounds of counting, BJP's Madhavaneni Raghunandan Rao defeated his TRS candidate Solipeta Sujatha by a margin of 1,079 votes.

BJP secured 62,772 votes, while the losing TRS candidate secured 61,302 votes. Congress, a distant third, bagged 21,819 votes. The vote share of BJP in the by-election was 38.21 per cent as opposed to TRS' 38.08 per cent.

Stating that the party accepts the verdict in favour of the BJP in Dubbak, Rama Rao said minutes after it became clear that the TRS had lost: “In the coming days, we will analyse the reasons for the party’s failure at the hustings and take corrective measures.”

Addressing a press conference at Telangana Bhavan, Rama Rao said: “We have emerged victorious in several elections and byelections since the formation of Telangana state. When we win, we don’t get overwhelmed, and when we lose we will not be disillusioned.”

He declared that the TRS government will continue with its welfare and developmental programmes with renewed vigour. Maintaining that the aim of any party contesting the election is to win, Rama Rao said, “We did the same, but the public sentiment was in favour of BJP.”