The electioneering in Jubilee Hills assembly constituency is gradually gaining heat with all the three major political parties – the Congress, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and the Bharatiya Janata Party – have announced their candidates and plunged into campaign in full swing.
The BRS is the first party to announce its candidate – Maganti Sunitha, wife of sitting MLA Maganti Gopinath, whose sudden death a few months ago necessitated the by-election. Sunitha has been into the campaign mode much before the election process began.
For the BRS, retaining Jubilee Hills assembly seat is vital after the party’s loss of power in the 2023 December assembly elections and also a humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.
The BRS also lost the by-election to the Secunderabad Cantonment seat to the Congress.
Adding to these defeats, the BRS also has been in severe crisis due to the surfacing of largescale irregularities in Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project as pointed out by the Justice P C Ghose Commission.
The telephone tapping scandal and the Formula-E race case also damaged the BRS image considerably.
The suspension and the consequent exit of BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha from the party also brought a bad name for the party. These issues might mar the chances of the BRS in the Jubilee Hills by-poll.
However, an internal survey conducted by the BRS in the constituency is learnt to have indicated that the party has slight edge over the Congress and might scrape through the by-poll by a difference of 2% votes.
“This is perhaps due to lack of resources for the Congress candidate Naveen Yadav, compared to Sunitha, besides the support of a large number of Andhra settlers for Sunitha, who is also a settler in Jubilee Hills. The Kamma lobby is also trying hard to secure victory for her,” sources said.
Yet, the Congress is confident in its chances, citing government welfare schemes and aiming to leverage consolidated Muslim community support to challenge the BRS’s dominance in the GHMC area.
“The BJP has fielded a Reddy candidate, while the BRS candidate is a Kamma. That way, Revanth Reddy is confident that the Congress candidate Naveen Yadav, a BC, will have brighter chances,” source said.
For the Congress, winning Jubilee Hills would reinforce its governance and consolidate leadership authority. The BJP wants to use the election to strengthen its standing as Telangana’s main opposition.
The BRS views the contest as essential to proving its ongoing political significance in the state.