TRS candidate Nomula Bhagat Kumar wins Nagarjuna Sagar by-poll

The TRS on Sunday retained the Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly seat with the ruling party candidate Nomula Bhagat Kumar winning the bypoll by a margin of 18,448 votes over his nearest Congress rival K Jana Reddy.

The BJP, which has been trying to position itself as an alternative to the TRS in Telangana, was decimated in the bypoll with its candidate — Dr Pangugothu Ravi managing just 7,646 votes and in the process, losing his deposit amount.

The by-election was necessitated due to the sudden demise of TRS MLA Nomula Narasimaiah on December 1 last year. The TRS fielded his son, Bhagat Kumar, for the by-election held on April 17. Bhagat, soon after winning the by-poll, dedicated the victory to Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao whose welfare schemes and development programmes ensured his win.

Right from the first round, Bhagath Kumar established an impressive lead and held on to it till the last round of counting. He polled 88,982 votes against Congress veteran Jana Reddy, who secured 70,504 votes. After the completion of counting, the Returning Officer announced the results and handed over the certificate of election to the TRS candidate.

Bhagath created a record of sorts by winning



with a huge margin of votes against the Congress warhorse. In fact, Bhagat Kumar polled double of what his father had polled in the 2018 Assembly elections against Jana Reddy. The TRS accounted for 47.11 per cent of the votes polled while Congress got 37.3 per cent. Barring one mandal — Anumula- Bhagath was ahead in all the other six mandals. In Anumula mandal, Jana Reddy managed a slender lead of 447 votes over Bhagath.

A majority of the postal ballots also went in favour of Bhagat. Of the 1,384 postal ballots, 822 votes were in favour of Bhagath, while Jana Reddy got 428 votes with 51 votes declared invalid.

Speaking to the media after his win, Bhagath said he would work hard to fulfil his father’s dream of developing the Assembly constituency. He thanked the TRS leaders and workers who worked for his victory and assured that he would live up to the confidence shown by the people of the constituency. The newly-elected MLA asserted he will strive to complete all the development works taken up in his constituency by the next elections. 

Meanwhile, the TRS cadre broke into celebrations in Nalgonda and in Telangana Bhavan, the party headquarters in Hyderabad.