Congress Hopes To Wrest Jubilee Hills Seat; Appoints 3 In-Charges For Bypoll

Hyderabad:The Congress has ramped up its efforts to secure a second Assembly seat under the GHMC limits by appointing three ministers as in-charges for the upcoming Jubilee Hills byelection.

This move comes in the wake of the untimely death of BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath due to a heart attack on June 8, necessitating the bypoll.

Ministers Tummala Nageswara Rao, Ponnam Prabhakar and Gaddam Vivek have been entrusted with the responsibility of strategising for the Jubilee Hills Assembly bypoll, ensuring party unity and mobilising cadre support for the election, party sources said.

The new committee has been tasked with organising party leaders and workers for the bypoll while gathering feedback on the selection of a suitable candidate. They are expected to recommend three names for the party's final selection.

The Congress leadership is viewing the Jubilee Hills byelection as a prestige issue, stressing the need to win this seat to solidify its position in the GHMC limits, particularly as the party gears up for the crucial civic body elections scheduled for early 2026.

The committee will identify pending works in the constituency, which will be completed on a war-footing by releasing funds on a priority-basis.

The Congress had a disappointing performance in the December 2023 Assembly elections, failing to win a single seat in the 24 constituencies under the GHMC jurisdiction. This poor showing continued into the May 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where the party failed to secure any of the four seats in Greater Hyderabad, including Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Chevella, and Malkajgiri.

The party found a silver lining in the bypoll for Secunderabad Cantonment in May 2024, where the Congress wrested the seat from the BRS after the untimely death of BRS MLA Lasya Nanditha in a road accident.

The Congress is keen to wrestle the Jubilee Hills seat from the BRS, with the bypoll seen as an early indicator of the public's mood ahead of the GHMC elections. The bypoll is expected to be a litmus test for the Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy-led Congress government, which assumed power in December 2023.

The Congress is hoping a victory will uplift the morale of party leaders and cadres not only in the GHMC limits but across the state, particularly with opposition parties BRS and BJP criticising the Congress government for failing to implement its Six Guarantees and other poll promises and claiming severe anti-incumbency against Revanth government.

The Congress sees this byelection as an opportunity to gauge voter sentiment before the crucial GHMC elections. In the 2023 Assembly polls, the party fielded former cricketer Mohd Azharuddin, who lost to BRS candidate Maganti Gopinath, despite securing a strong second place.

Azharuddin, who lost by a margin of 16,337 votes, has already signalled his intent to contest the bypoll again, expressing confidence that he would be given another chance by the party high command. He has also claimed that he has the backing of key AICC leaders, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi.

In addition to Azharuddin, V. Naveen Yadav, who contested as an Independent against Azharuddin in 2023 and later joined the Congress, is also vying for the ticket. The Congress is hoping for the AIMIM’s support in this bypoll, with an estimated 30 per cent of the Jubilee Hills electorate being Muslims.

The Congress believes that securing the AIMIM's backing could significantly boost their chances of victory. In 2023, AIMIM candidate Rasheed Farazuddin finished fourth with 7,848 votes, a split that benefited the BRS. If the AIMIM opts out of the bypoll, it is expected to be a three-way contest between the Congress, BRS and the BJP.

In the 2023 Assembly polls, Gopinath triumphed with 80,549 votes, while Azharuddin secured 64,212 votes. The BJP's Lanka Deepak Reddy bagged over 25,866 votes and AIMIM's Farazuddin took 7,848 votes.