Hyderabad: It was a big day for BJP as it won 3 of the 4 Assembly elections on Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about the historic hat-trick in Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
Even in the state where they missed out, BJP had reasons to feel buoyant even though they finished third behind Congress and Bharat Rashtra Samithi.
The saffron party doubled its vote share (13.9%) as well as seats won (8) compared to the 2018 Assembly elections.
And on the individual front, BJP found a man who emerged as a major giant-killer.
No one gave the relatively unknown KV Kamana Reddy any chance as he was chosen to contest from Kamareddy constituency as his opponents were two-time sitting Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and Congress’ Telangana unit chief Revanth Reddy, the likely CM candidate after Congress’ victory.
The 53-year-old Ramana stunned his fancied rivals to poll the maximum number of votes (66,652). KCR came second, polling 59,911 votes to lose by a margin of 6,741. Revanth was third, with 54,916 votes in his favour.
Ramana, who left BRS to join the BJP a few years ago, said he wasn’t overawed by his heavyweight rivals.
“I saw them as normal candidates and myself as a BJP candidate. I won because of the support of the common man. I am not the MLA of the 65,000 people who voted for me. I am the MLA of the 2.5 lakh voters and 4.5 lakh people in the constituency,” Ramana said after sealing victory.
Ramana, who doesn’t have a college education, declared assets worth Rs 49.7 crore in his election affidavit.
This is the first time since Telangana state was formed a decade ago that BRS has lost Kamareddy, located 120 km from Hyderabad.
