In yet another blow to the BJP in Telangana, the party today lost its Lingojiguda division seat to its rival the Congress.
The BJP's Mandugula Akhil Pawan Goud was defeated by the Congress' Darpally Rajashekar Reddy.
The by-election in the GHMC division was necessitated by the passing of the BJP's sitting corporator Akula Ramesh Reddy.
The saffron party had
requested the TRS not to field a candidate for the seat and to extend its support to the family of the deceased corporator.
Responding positively to the request, the ruling party abstained from the electoral contest.
Apart from the Congress and BJP, independent candidates like Chalika Chandrasekhar, Jalla Nagarjuna and Shaik Parvez also contested fought for the seat.
However the Congress candidate Rajashekar Reddy defeated all his rivals for the seat with a big majority. The victory of the party in the by-election has resulted in it having three corporators in the GHMC limits.
Following the win, TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy conveyed his congratulations to the newly-elected corporator.
The TPCC chief, who is currently recuperating from Covid-19, called up Rajashekar Reddy to congratulate him on his landslide victory, and said that he had secured his win despite the conspiracies of the TRS and the BJP.
He added that the outcome of the by-election was also evidence of the existence of great opposition to both the TRS and the BJP among the people of Hyderabad.