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Naveen Yadav of Congress registers landslide victory in Jubilee Hills bypoll
Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy said the Congress had secured 51% of the total polled votes.
The Congress on Friday registered a landslide victory in the Jubilee Hills assembly bye-elections in Hyderabad by wresting the seat from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) with a massive margin of 24,729 votes.
After the completion of 10 rounds of counting of votes, the Election Commission of India declared that Congress candidate Vallala Naveen Yadav polled 98,988 votes against 74,259 votes polled by his nearest rival Maganti Sunitha of BRS.
Sunitha is the widow of BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath, whose death in June this year necessitated the bypoll.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Lankala Deepak Reddy, who polled only 17,061 votes, lost his deposit. In all, 58 candidates were in the fray in the by-election.
The Jubilee Hills constituency recorded a low turnout of voters during the polling held on November 11, with only 48.42% of the total number of 4.01 lakh voters exercising their franchise.
Scenes of jubilation broke out at the Congress office as party workers lit firecrackers and cheered the result, their celebrations echoing across the city.
Hailing the victory of Yadav in the Jubilee Hills bye-election, Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy said the Congress had secured 51% of the total polled votes, which showed they had reposed the tremendous faith of the people on his government, which was focussing on welfare and developmental programmes in Hyderabad.
“In the November 2023 assembly elections, the people of Hyderabad did not give their mandate to the Congress. Subsequently, we won the bye-election to Secunderabad Cantonment seat and now, the Jubilee Hills seat. It clearly shows the people of Hyderabad have begun appreciating our efforts,” he told reporters.
He advised the BRS and the BJP leaders to do self-introspection, instead of slinging mud at the state government through social media platforms, and cooperate with the government. “We shall seek the mandate of the people again after three years based on our performance,” he said.
He also thanked the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and other friendly parties and individuals who supported the Congress in the Jubilee Hills bypoll.
After obtaining the declaration certificate from the returning officer, Naveen Yadav said the people of Jubilee Hills had effectively countered the negative campaign unleashed by his rivals during the campaign. “I shall strive hard to fulfil the aspirations of the people of my constituency,” he said.
BRS working president KT Rama Rao said the by-election had clearly established that the BRS was the only alternative to the Congress in Telangana. He asked the public and his party workers not to be disheartened by the defeat after Congress won the Jubilee Hills bye-election with a margin of nearly 25,000 votes.
“Our party has succeeded in holding Congress accountable and exposed its failures in implementing its six guarantees. We raised our voice against the lack of a place for minorities in the cabinet and forced the Congress government to induct a minority minister,” he said.
He showed appreciation for all the leaders for working tirelessly and thanked the voters who contributed to the party’s significant vote share.
Who is Naveen Yadav?
Forty-two-year-old Vallala Naveen Yadav is a prominent leader from the Yadava community belonging to other backward classes (OBC). He is the son of Chinna Srisailam Yadav, once a key local strongman and a notorious rowdy sheeter in the Jubilee Hills area.
Naveen Yadav later got into real estate business and became a popular youth leader in the constituency with his voluntary organisation ‘Nava Yuva Nirman’ that focuses on skill development and employment training programmes for youth.
He began his political career with the AIMIM, working in several organisational roles before being fielded by the party in the 2014 assembly elections. Contesting as the AIMIM candidate, he lost to TDP’s Maganti Gopinath by a margin of 9,242 votes.
Ahead of the 2018 Telangana assembly elections, the AIMIM denied him a party ticket, prompting him to resign and enter the fray as an independent candidate. He secured 18,817 votes and finished in third place.
In the run-up to the 2023 assembly elections, Yadav once again filed his nomination as an independent. However, following an appeal by former Indian cricket captain and then Congress leader Mohammed Azharuddin, he withdrew his candidature and subsequently joined the Congress.
He was later formally inducted into the party on November 15, 2023, in the presence of then Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president and CM Reddy.
Though there were several contenders for the Congress ticket in the Jubilee Hills by-election, Reddy preferred Yadav because he belongs to the OBC community. He was pitched against the upper caste candidates – Maganti Sunitha, a Kamma leader from the BRS and Lankala Deepak Reddy, a Reddy leader from the BJP.
The Congress, which has been championing the issue of 42% OBC reservations, was hoping to cash in on this OBC sentiment by fielding Yadav. At the same time, the party also secured support from the AIMIM, which did not field any candidate.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi issued a statement during the campaign calling upon the Muslim voters to extend full support to Yadav. “We appeal to the Muslims to back the Congress in the interest of development and stability,” he said.
