TRS supporters celebrate party's win in by-polls
Crucial by-elections were held today in different parts of the country. The big winner was the pro-Telangana TRS, which swept the Andhra Pradesh elections. The BJP has to deal with considerable damage in Gujarat and Karnataka - it has lost two important seats there.
In Andhra Pradesh, six of the seven constituencies that voted are in the Telangana region, which has been campaigning for a separate state. That movement has been aggressively fronted by the TRS, which is headed by K Chandrasekhar Rao or KCR as he's commonly known. The TRS won four seats and helped an independent candidate get the fifth. It lost Mahabubnagar to the BJP. That's awkward because Mahabubnagar is the parliamentary constituency of KCR. Violence erupted here with TRS workers attacking the home of the BJP's candidate after he was declared elected.
Jagan Mohan Reddy, who split from the Congress to form his own party, won the Kovur seat in coastal Andhra Pradesh. The Congress has lost on all seven seats. It has been punished by voters who hold the government at the centre responsible for refusing to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh and give Telangana its own state.
In Gujarat, the BJP lost the Mansa assembly seat in the northern part of the state. The Congress has won a seat that was held for four consecutive terms by the BJP. This was a significant election ahead of the state's polls, expected in December when BJP chief minister Narendra Modi will seek a new term.
In Karnataka, the BJP was defeated by the Congress in Udupi-Chikmagalur which was voting for a Lok Sabha seat, Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda's former constituency. The BJP's tallest leader BS Yeddyurappa was not allowed to campaign here by his party because it was worried the corruption charges against him would turn voters against the party.
In the other by-elections in which counting of votes were done today, the ruling AIADMK retained the Sankarankoil Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu as expected and the BJD won the Athgarh seat in Odisha.
| State | Constituency | Winnner | Party |
|---|
| Karnataka | Udupi Chikmagalur* | Jai Prakash Hegde | Congress |
| Andhra Pradesh | Mahabubnagar | Y. Srinivas Reddy | BJP |
| Andhra Pradesh | Ghanpur (Station) | T.Rajaya | TRS |
| Andhra Pradesh | Kollapur | J. Krishna Rao | TRS |
| Andhra Pradesh | Adilabad | J. Ramna | TRS |
| Andhra Pradesh | Kamareddy | G. Goverdhan | TRS |
| Andhra Pradesh | Nagarkurnool | N Janardhan Reddy | Independent |
| Andhra Pradesh | Kovur | N Prasanna Kumar Reddy | YSR Congress |
| Gujarat | Mansa | Thakur Babu Singh Mohan Singh. | Congress |
| Kerala | Piravom | Anup Jacob | UDF |
| Odisha | Athgarh | Ralendra Pratap Sai | BJD |
| Tamil Nadu | Sankarankoil | V. Muthuselvi | AIADMK |
* Udupi Chikmaglur is a Lok Sabha constituency