Opinion: Why BRS lost Jubilee Hills seat

Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), the primary Opposition in Telangana, was the first to announce its candidate for the Jubilee Hills bypoll, following the demise of sitting BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath.

As a mark to continue the BRS tradition, the ticket was given to Gopinath’s spouse, Maganti Sunitha. BRS was also the first to kickstart the election campaign, strategies, and launch their team in Jubilee Hills. Despite putting up a high-octane fight, the ‘Car’ party could not finish the race. BRS candidate Maganti Sunitha secured 74,296 votes and came second in the election.

Congress Pick Naveen Yadhav won with a record majority of 24,729 votes. He polled 98,988 votes and became an MLA for the first time after contesting three elections.

KTR’s image takes a beating

BRS lost its second seat in Greater Hyderabad after the Secunderabad Cantonment election. With this bypoll, BRS loses hold in major parts of the Twin Cities.

Currently, with BRS supreme K Chandrashekar Rao taking a backseat and visibly missing from the public eye, BRS working president KT Rama Rao and senior-cum-seasoned MLA T Harish Rao were seen driving the Car party as the Opposition.

KTR, also the Sircilla MLA, took the onus to spearhead the election campaign from day one. From planning DJ and big screen street rallies, building perception narratives against HYDRAA and unfulfilled Congress schemes, KTR took on the Congress. His team played well on social media, too. However, the same did not convert on the ground level.

It was neck to neck until the final days

Amid the heated campaign, senior leader and troubleshooter Harish Rao had to take a step back following the demise of his father. With Harish Rao staying away for close to 10 days, KTR ultimately became the face of the election.

Until the last few days, the competition looked stiff, and one could not write off BRS as the losing party. Even the Congress leaders were underconfident about their win. However, towards the end, the Congress scored well in booth management.

Naveen Yadav is said to have a robust youth following within the constituency, primarily in the Yadav community. His personal team planned a good person-to-person monitoring. It was the poor booth management of BRS that caused the loss, sources said.

Weak candidate

Speaking to NewsMeter, under the condition of anonymity, a senior BRS leader shared that Maganti Sunitha always came across as a ‘rude’ person to the cadre even when the then-BRS MLA Gopinath was alive. She reportedly handled the money of the MLA but was of very little help to the cadre.

“Our party (BRS) is strong, but our candidate (Sunitha) is weak. The cadre was unwilling to campaign for her initially. It took time for them to unite to fight against Congress as the local party men disliked her,” the BRS leader said.

Also, BRS was aware of the family conflicts within the Gopinath Family. The revelation by the first wife and son of Gopinath against the second wife, Sunitha (the BRS candidate), damaged her image during the campaign. Gopinath's mother's accusations and questioning the ‘cause’ of his death also made an impact.

An intense campaign cut fewer votes

All through the campaign, BRS took on Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy as a prime target. The anti-Revanth card was visible all through the campaign.

BRS demonised HYDRAA for the demolitions, especially against the poor. BRS projected the department as a social evil and also tried to convey that HYDRAA would go after them (the public).

On the other end, the Congress which did not put up a great show when compared to BRS, focused on their poll promises: free RTC bus rides; households receiving free ‘sanna biyyam’ (rice) that costs up to Rs 60/kg; 50 lakh homes getting ‘zero power bills’ under the 200-unit free electricity scheme; LPG cylinders at Rs 500; and people availing free medical care up to Rs 10 lakh under Rajiv Aarogyasri Scheme in corporate and private hospitals.

The BJP factor

It is pertinent to note that the BJP in Telangana lost its deposits in the Jubilee Hills by-election.

Lankala Deepak Reddy, known to be a close associate of Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, stood third in the race by securing 17,061 votes against the 24,000 votes secured in the 2024 elections.

The BJP was visibly missing from the campaign until Karimnagar MP and Union Minister Bandi Sanjay parachuted in towards the end. The BRS has blamed him for polarising votes, resulting in a split of the Hindu vote bank.

Kavitha has the last laugh

‘Karma Hits Back’ — a tweet from the official handle of former BRS MLC K Kavitha, following the Jubilee Hills bypoll results, has hit the BRS hard. Though she stayed away from the Jubilee Hills elections, Kavitha did not miss the opportunity to shoot where it hurts.