Hyderabad:
Results are in for seven seats in the Telangana by-elections and K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) has reason to smile. His Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has won six, while new political friend BJP has won one.
The TRS is also leading in the five other seats where ballot boxes were used because there were more candidates than the electronic voting machine (EVM) could list.
The TRS won Vemuluwada by a margin of 50,361 votes and Siddipet by a record 95,000 votes.
The party spared no effort to try and win back the 10 seats it had resigned knowing well that any setback would severely dent KCR's standing in the region. These results will mean a big political boost for KCR, the TRS chief and the man whose agitation eight months ago set the stage for the latest unrest in Telangana.
By-elections were held to 12 Assembly constituencies in the Telangana region on Tuesday, necessitated by one BJP, one TDP and 10 TRS MLAs resigning in February this year to bolster their demand for a separate Telangana state.
The ruling Congress has suffered a major setback with the party's state unit president D Srinivas losing the by-election from the Nizamabad Urban seat by 12,000 votes to BJP candidate Y Laksmi Narayana.
For Srinivas, who fancies himself as a future Chief Minister and had been counting on a win here as a step towards fulfilling that ambition, this was make or break.
KCR said before votes were cast earlier this week, "Including D Srinivas, all 12 Congress candidates should lose their deposit. Only then will Sonia Gandhi realise the heat of the Telangana sentiment."
This election sees KCR with a new political friend yet again, the BJP. Only a year ago he had joined hands with Chandrababu Naidu for the Lok Sabha 2009 battle and in 2004, had fought alongside the Congress.
The TRS is also leading in the five other seats where ballot boxes were used because there were more candidates than the electronic voting machine (EVM) could list.
The TRS won Vemuluwada by a margin of 50,361 votes and Siddipet by a record 95,000 votes.
The party spared no effort to try and win back the 10 seats it had resigned knowing well that any setback would severely dent KCR's standing in the region. These results will mean a big political boost for KCR, the TRS chief and the man whose agitation eight months ago set the stage for the latest unrest in Telangana.
By-elections were held to 12 Assembly constituencies in the Telangana region on Tuesday, necessitated by one BJP, one TDP and 10 TRS MLAs resigning in February this year to bolster their demand for a separate Telangana state.
The ruling Congress has suffered a major setback with the party's state unit president D Srinivas losing the by-election from the Nizamabad Urban seat by 12,000 votes to BJP candidate Y Laksmi Narayana.
For Srinivas, who fancies himself as a future Chief Minister and had been counting on a win here as a step towards fulfilling that ambition, this was make or break.
KCR said before votes were cast earlier this week, "Including D Srinivas, all 12 Congress candidates should lose their deposit. Only then will Sonia Gandhi realise the heat of the Telangana sentiment."
This election sees KCR with a new political friend yet again, the BJP. Only a year ago he had joined hands with Chandrababu Naidu for the Lok Sabha 2009 battle and in 2004, had fought alongside the Congress.
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