Hyderabad: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary and former Telangana unit chief Bandi Sanjay was defeated in the Karimnagar assembly constituency, losing to his nearest rival, MLA Gangula Kamalakar of the BRS, by 3,163 votes.
Sanjay is an MP from Karimnagar, having won the seat in 2019.
The assembly constituency, with 3,42,014 registered voters, recorded a voting percentage of 63.23 percent Thursday. The urban segment has a considerable presence of Muslim voters, seen as a deciding factor in the election outcome.
Against Kamalakar, a state minister and incumbent Karimnagar MLA, and Sanjay, the Congress contestant is Purumalla Srinivas. All three are from the same community, Munnuru Kapu, categorised as backward in Telangana.
Karimnagar is one of the constituencies the BJP had voiced confidence of winning in the state.
Most of the exit polls showed the BJP winning 4-8 seats out of the state’s 119 assembly segments. As of 7 pm Sunday, the BJP had won seven and was leading in one.
Under Sanjay’s leadership, the BJP gained an unprecedented momentum on the ground in the state, winning two bypolls and putting up an impressive show in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls.
However, the impetus was seen as lost since Sanjay’s removal as state chief. Several prominent leaders like M. Vijayashanthi also left the party before the polls.
Sanjay earned credit as a “streetfighter”, taking on Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) and his son, state minister K. T. Rama Rao (KTR), head on over issues like the Telangana State Public Service Commission paper leaks case.
As the state BJP chief, he also went on a state-wide padayatra in 2022, which drew large crowds. However, he has been a controversial figure with his provocative rhetoric, and was also said to have inspired some disaffection within the party, especially among BRS defectors like former minister Eatala Rajender.
After the polling ended for Thursday’s elections, Sanjay exuded confidence about winning the assembly seat where he had been defeated in 2018 by Kamalakar.
“We will install the saffron flag in Karimnagar assembly this time,” Sanjay said.
ThePrint, on ground visits to Karimnagar during the campaign, found the Muslim voters divided in their preference towards the Congress and the BRS. According to BJP sources, such a split works to their advantage.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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