The outcome of the by-election to Huzurnagar assembly seat is a huge setback to the Bharatiya Janata Party, more than to the Congress party in Telangana.
The BJP might not have expected to win the Huzurnagar seat, but it was expected to win at least a good percentage of votes and get a respectable position in the contest.
That would give some sort of credence to BJP’s claim that it is the only party that has the potential to dethrone the Telangana Rashtra Samithi in 2023 assembly elections and come to power.
It would have given the moral strength to the BJP leaders who were dreaming to capture power for the first time in the Telugu states.
But the by-election result has completely shattered their dreams.
BJP candidate K Rama Rao could get a pitiable number of 1206 votes out of around total number of two lakhs polled votes in the by-election.
Apparently, the BJP candidate doesn’t have even a few hundred party workers in the entire constituency.
It is not that the party is unknown to the people of Huzurnagar and there is always the Narendra Modi effect in the urban parts of the constituency.
Yet, the BJP could not get more than a few hundred votes. This is definitely a big humiliation for a national party which is sweeping the entire country and is dreaming of capturing power in Telangana by polarising communal votes.
It clearly shows the BJP has a very bleak chance of coming to power in Telangana at least in the next 10-15 years. And that the Congress is the only rival, a distant rival at that, to the TRS in Telangana!