TRS' Pocharam Wins Banswada By-Polls

Telangana Rashtra Samithi candidate Pocharam Srinivas Reddy has won the Banswada by-election with a whopping majority of 49,889 votes.

Of 1,22,872 votes polled on 13 October, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy secured 83,245 votes.

His nearest rival, the Congress candidate secured 33,356 votes. 4 other candidates could not even secure their deposits.

In the 2009 general elections, as a TDP candidate, Pocharam won with a majority of 26,103 votes. However, as a TRS candidate, this time he was able to win with a majority of 49,889.

According to analysts, the result was as expected. Pocharam's victory is being attributed to the Telangana sentiment being at its peak.

However, Srinivas Goud's 33,356 came as a surprise. He was considered by many as a non-serious candidate, and no stalwarts, including Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana or even the local MP Madhu Yaskhi, campaigned for him.

Talking to reporters after the results were announcemed, Pocharam said that his victory "clearly shows" that people in the region are in favour of a separate Telangana.

He said that despite having a "secret alliance", the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party together could not defeat him. He said the Congress candidate had tried hard only to secure his deposit.

Thanking the Banswada voters for electing a TRS candidate, MLA K Tarakama Rao said that the results have proved that both Congress and TDP have been rejected by the people in the region.

He predicted that the TRS would do a repeat of the Banswada results on all seats in the region during the next elections, and that the Congress and the TDP will have to satisfy themselves by securing deposits. (INN)