At the end of the fifth round, the TRS is ahead of the BJP by 1,430 votes, while the Congress is not in the reckoning.
Scene outside a counting centre in Munugode Assembly segment on Sunday, 6 November. (South First)
The Munugode by-election seems to be heading towards a cliffhanger like in the Dubbaka Assembly segment, where the BJP won by a narrow margin of 1,079 votes in November 2020, after a daylong roller-coaster ride.
It has been a see-saw battle between the TRS and BJP ever since the counting of votes began at 8 am on Sunday, 6 November.
For TRS, the by-election is of utmost importance, since reverses, would upset its BRS (Bharat Rashtra Samithi) applecart.
In the case of the BJP, it is a do-or-die battle, as unless it won the seat, the party cannot create a perception that it has been on a winning streak and that it is set on capturing power in the next Assembly elections.
The Congress could not keep pace with the two and is trailing far behind the TRS and BJP.
Though the Congress’s performance is on expected lines, the BJP’s ability to keep pace with the TRS has come as a surprise.
All exit polls were unanimous that the TRS would beat the BJP with a comfortable margin, but indications so far are that the election is going down to the wire.
Whether the BJP wins or loses, it will be by a slender margin. After the fifth round of counting, the TRS is ahead of the BJP by 1,430 votes, while Congress is not in the reckoning at all.
The BJP in fact appeared to have lost all its hopes and even the party’s top leaders on Saturday, 5 November, said that the purpose of fighting Munugode was to expand the organisation’s footprint in south Telangana.
The TRS nominee, Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy, who expected smooth sailing, is gasping for breath to stay ahead of the BJP’s Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy.
A TRS leader said: “Had Congress candidate Palvai Sravanthi performed a little better, we would have had a very comfortable lead over the BJP. She could not retain the Congress voters and had let them go in favour of the BJP.”
BJP legislator Eatala Rajender said the Munugode result should be seen as the defeat of KCR’s ignorance. In fact, more than Rajgopal Reddy, it was Rajender who toured extensively and campaigned as though it was his election. His wife made door-to-door visits in her native village, Palivela, seeking support for the BJP nominee.
The bitterness in his voice was evident when he said KCR’s arrogance was tasting its worst-ever defeat. Rajender has not yet forgotten how KCR had hounded him out of the cabinet, forcing him to resign, join the BJP and take sweet revenge on the TRS supremo by winning the Huzurabad by-election.
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