A thorn in the flesh of the ruling TRS, A. Revanth Reddy was worried about his result in the Malkajgiri Parliament constituency after the defection of the lone elected Congress MLA - D. Sudheer Reddy from L.B. Nagar on the eve of the elections.
Surprisingly, the same constituency has come to his rescue and made all the difference to his win. He secured a massive lead of 27,404 in the constituency over his nearest rival, Marri Rajshekar Reddy of the TRS who got 70,454 votes. The BJP candidate, N. Ramchander Rao too put up a good fight here securing 53,691 votes.
In fact, it was the only constituency that was won by the Congress in the Assembly elections. Mr. Revanth used the defection to his advantage repeatedly revealing during his campaign that it was Mr. Sudheer Reddy who forced him to join the fray from Malkajgiri.
“He was a like a brother and has cheated me,” he said during his campaign. He further raked up the sentiment pointing out that he campaigned for Mr. Sudheer Reddy in the Assembly elections leaving his own constituency Kodangal from where he lost.
That sentiment seems to have worked in favour of Mr. Revanth Reddy going by the massive lead he secured there. “People voted with vengeance to teach Mr. Sudheer Reddy a lesson,” a follower of Revanth argued.
Mr. Revanth himself enjoys lot of support in the constituency that has large section of voters with roots in Andhra Pradesh. And his association with the Telugu Desham Party (TDP) over the years had helped him consolidate that fan base. In fact, in 2014 elections the seat was bagged by R. Krishnaiah, who contested on the TDP ticket in the peak of Telangana sentiment.
The result also reflects the views of TPCC chief, N. Uttam Kumar Reddy who claimed that Congress performed well in most constituencies where MLAs preferred to change the party.
Malkajgiri and Uppal constituencies were the other two where Mr. Reddy secured leads of 9,841 and 7,884 respectively. These two constituencies were won by the TRS in the Assembly elections. So in a way, TRS has lost two Assembly segments that it won with handsome majorities just five months ago.
The segment where he conceded the largest majority was the Secunderabad cantonment where the lead to TRS was 12,304 votes.
An interesting aspect of the polling was seen in Medchal constituency where the TRS could get the lead of just 8,087 votes. The constituency is represented by Labour Minister M. Malla Reddy and his son-in-law was the TRS candidate.
Just five months ago, Mr. Malla Reddy bagged the seat with a margin of nearly 90,000 votes, which literally means it has lost nearly 80,000 votes to Congress this time.
In constituencies where TRS secured lead over Mr. Revanth, it was just in few thousands compared to Assembly elections when huge margins were noticed in TRS favour.
