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BJP's Katipally Venkata Ramana Reddy emerged as the giant-slayer of the Telangana assembly election, having defeated outgoing Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and state Congress chief A Revanth Reddy, who is the frontrunner to be the next CM, from the Kamareddy seat.
Ramana Reddy won by 6741 votes with KCR emerging as his nearest rival. The BJP candidate polled 66,652 votes compared to 59,911 votes polled by KCR and 54916 by Revanth Reddy in a tight contest on the prestigious seat. Ramana Reddy said he was not overwhelmed by the presence of the Chief Minister and senior Congress leader in the contest and took them as "ordinary candidates" and while he was the BJP candidate, they were of Bharat Rashtra Samithi and Congress. The BJP leader said he won due to the support of the people. "I did not look at them as CM and CM candidates. I took both of them as normal candidates. People have supported me a lot and this is the reason I won from here. I have become the MLA from Kamareddy. I want to say that I am not just the MLA of 65,000 voters, but I am the MLA of 4 lakh people," Ramana Reddy told ANI. Answering queries, Ramana Reddy said that he would get constituency-development funds as an MLA and these cannot be denied by any government. Citing an example, he said the BJP government at the Centre disburses development funds to those states also where the party is not in power. Kamareddy hogged the limelight after KCR announced his candidature from the seat and Revanth Reddy decided to challenge him for the seat. Both KCR and Revanth Reddy contested from two seats in the state. Ramana Reddy, who has nurtured the constituency over the years, had expressed confidence of winning the polls. Congress is poised to form government in Telangana and is slated to win 64 seats in the 119-member assembly. The BRS is poised to win 39 seats and BJP eight seats. The BJP has also increased its vote share in Telangana elections. Telangana went to the polls on November 30 and the counting of votes was taken up on Sunday morning. BRS had been ruling Telangana, India's youngest state, for the past 10 years. (ANI)
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