TRS beats back BJP to bag Munugode; Cong bites dust

Win Gives Pink Party Bragging Rights Before Assembly Poll

- U.Sudhakarreddy

Hyderabad: The TRS won the fiercely contested Munugode by-election with a healthy majority of more than 10,000 votes on Sunday. After running neck-and-neck initially, TRS candidate, Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy, pulled away from BJP’s Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy with every round of counting and won by 10,309 votes.

Both parties had campaigned in the by-election as if there was no tomorrow, para dropping more than 100 leaders each into the constituency even as allegations of bribing voters flew thick and fast. However, the TRS government’s welfare schemes and its alliance with the Left parties helped it nose ahead of an increasingly aggressive BJP.