TRS chief wins Siddipet byelection

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 22. Moving on predictable lines, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), spearheading a movement for a separate State, and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) split the electoral honours in the Assembly byelections winning in Siddipet and Vuyyur respectively on Saturday.

Mr. K. Chandrasekhara Rao, president of the TRS, polled 82,632 votes to carve out a landslide victory - a margin of 58,712 votes - over TDP's M. Srinivas Reddy (23,920) and the Congress candidate, Mr. V. Hanumanth Reddy (3,317), who forfeited his deposit. The byelection was caused by the resignation of Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao, who had won on the TDP ticket in 1999 but later parted ways with it to eventually float the TRS.

In Vuyyur, Mrs. Anne Vijayalakshmi of the TDP, wife of the late Anne Babu Rao, who held the seat until his death recently, defeated the Congress(I) candidate, Mr. K. Parthasarathy, by over 17,451 votes. Mrs. Vijayalakshmi polled 52,421 votes and Mr. Parthasarathy 35,970.

Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao's victory heralds entry of the nascent political outfit, TRS, into the Legislature. The separate Telangana cause already has two protagonists in the House - Mr. R. Papa Rao (Sircilla) and Dr. R. Ravindranath Reddy (Alampur), who were suspended from the Congress and the BJP respectively.

The defeat at Siddipet was a big setback for the TDP which took the bypoll as a prestige issue and staked everything to win at any cost. A great deal of goodwill for Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao and support for the cause of Telangana had made his victory a foregone conclusion. The TDP circles conceded defeat on the day of polling itself but the scale of victory left them shocked. Even more pitiable was the position of the Congress which was blanked out of the contest.

Reacting to the verdict, the Chief Minister and the TDP president, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, said the results were `predictable' and as expected, the TRS won at Siddipet and the TDP at Vuyyur. `Siddipet was represented by him (Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao) and he retained it. Telugu Desam was our seat and we retained it.' When a reporter pointed out that Mr. Rao improved his majority, Mr. Naidu snapped back: `So have we in Vuyyur.'

The Telugu Desam Legislature Party executive just said: `In a democracy, we have to respect the verdict of people.'

Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao was taken out in a huge victory procession in Siddipet, reports said. In Vuyyur, Mrs. Vijayalakshmi thanked voters and pledged to continue the work initiated by her late husband.

In a statement, Mr. B. V. Raghavulu, secretary, CPI(M), attributed the TRS victory to Telangana people's yearning for development, confusion in the political stand of the Congress and the BJP.

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Section  : Southern States
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