Congress Topples BRS Fortress Jubilee Hills, Exposing Cracks Within Telangana's Main Opposition Party

Hyderabad: Congress candidate V. Naveen Yadav won the Jubilee Hills by-election, the results of which were announced on November 14, but the political triumph belonged to Telangana chief minister A. Revanth Reddy.

In a contest that became a referendum on his new government, Reddy staked his prestige to conquer a bastion of the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). Congress's Yadav secured 98,988 votes, defeating the BRS’s Maganti Sunitha Gopinath (74,259 votes) by a margin of 24,729 votes.

The by-election, held after the death of BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath, did more than raising the Congress’s assembly strength to 66. It redrew Telangana’s political map, cementing a two-horse race, triggering a crisis within the state's most powerful political family, and exposing the collapse of the BJP as a third force.

A masterclass in micro-management

The Congress victory was not an accident but a clinical study in modern electioneering. Facing an initial 22% vote deficit by its own polling, the party executed a flawless campaign led by the chief minister.

During the campaign, the Congress government inducted former MP and retired cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin into the state cabinet, a clear signal to the constituency's over one lakh Muslim voters. Azharuddin had lost to Gopinath by 16,337 votes in the 2023 assembly election.

Another masterstroke was securing the open support of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which, unlike in 2023, did not field a candidate. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s endorsement, with canvassing by his cadres, consolidated the constituency's large Muslim electorate – an estimated 1.3 lakh voters – behind the Congress.

"It's a great feeling," said Minister Gaddam Vivek Venkatswamy. "In just three months... we overturned it."

Beyond the alliance, Congress deployed poll management on a new scale. It countered the BRS campaign on the controversial Hyderabad Disaster Management and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA), framing it as urban reform, not "bulldozer politics."

A dynasty in disarray

For the BRS, the defeat was a devastating blow that exposed a party in turmoil. Its campaign, built on the hope of a "sympathy wave" for Maganti Sunitha, the late MLA’s wife, failed. The strategy of making the election a personal attack on Revanth Reddy backfired, allowing the chief minister to frame it as a personal challenge he was determined to win.

The loss uncorked internal rivalries. In a blistering press conference after the defeat, BRS MLC K. Kavitha, daughter of party supremo K. Chandrashekar Rao, attacked her cousin T. Harish Rao and brother K.T. Rama Rao (KTR).

She accused them of sabotaging the party, "misleading" KCR, and encouraging corruption.

"Farmers themselves told me how alignments of the RRR [Regional Ring Road] project were changed to protect lands belonging to Harish Rao and other BRS leaders," she alleged.

She claimed Rao had betrayed their candidate. "How can an important leader in a party say: ‘do as you wish’ [in the by-election]? Is that not betrayal?"

“Karma hits back,” was what she posted on X (formerly Twitter), on counting day.

While KTR, who led the campaign in his father's absence, accepted defeat, he accused Congress of "trampling on democratic values" by misusing state machinery. But the accusations could not hide the reality of a party grappling with an identity crisis.

The BJP’s urban collapse

If the result was a setback for the BRS, for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it was a catastrophe. Their candidate, L. Deepak Reddy, secured just 17,061 votes, forfeiting his security deposit.

The numbers reveal a collapse. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had polled over 60,000 votes in this assembly segment. The loss of nearly 50,000 votes signals an erosion of their urban support base.

In the intense, bipolar contest between the ruling Congress and the primary opposition BRS, the BJP was squeezed into irrelevance. Anti-incumbency votes consolidated behind the BRS, shattering the BJP's ambition to position itself as the main alternative in Telangana.

Transactional politics trumps sympathy

The Jubilee Hills verdict sends a message about the changing nature of Telangana's electorate. The failure of the "sympathy factor" confirms a shift away from sentiment-based politics.

The relationship between voters and politicians has become more transactional. The mindset has moved from a collective "what will you do for our community?" to an individual "what is in it for me and my family?" In this landscape, the appeal of a ruling party MLA who can deliver benefits outweighs emotional appeals rooted in the past.

The victory was an endorsement of Revanth Reddy’s governance and a bet on future development – a sign that voters are rewarding the party they believe holds the levers of power.

A two-horse race ahead

The by-election results will have significant implications in the near future. For Congress, the win is a morale boost ahead of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections. It proves the party can penetrate the urban fortress once dominated by the BRS and solidifies Revanth Reddy's authority as the leader of the party and the state.

For the BRS, the result is a moment of reckoning. Though it remains the principal opposition, the party must address its internal schisms and weaknesses. As Ms. Kavitha warned, "If BRS doesn’t perform as the real Opposition, we [Telangana Jagruthi] will rise as the principal Opposition." The fight for the soul of the BRS has just begun.

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