Congress Secures Crucial Victory in Telangana's Jubilee Hills Amid Bihar Setback

The Congress, which is facing a heavy defeat in Bihar, has received a comforting win in the south: their candidate has secured victory in the bypoll at Telangana's Jubilee Hills constituency. Congress candidate Naveen Yadav won by a substantial margin of nearly 25,000 votes. BRS's Maganti Sunitha Gopinath finished second, while BJP's Deepak Reddy Lankala came in third position. Jubilee Hills represents one of 15 constituencies within Hyderabad.

After establishing an unbeatable lead, Yadav expressed his gratitude to the media: "I am very thankful to the people who gave this mandate and a good majority."

The seat became vacant following the death of Bharat Rashtra Samithi's Maganti Gopinath in June this year, who had held it since 2014. Gopinath initially won the seat representing the Telugu Desam Party before transitioning to the Telangana Rastra Samithi, now known as BRS. In this election, the BRS fielded Sunitha Gopinath, wife of the late Maganti Gopinath.

An interesting note is that Maganti Gopinath had previously defeated former India cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin, who contested the 2023 polls as a Congress candidate. The Congress's impressive performance this time was bolstered by support from Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM party, which backed their candidate.

This Jubilee Hills victory provides some consolation for the Congress party, which is experiencing a significant defeat in the Bihar Assembly election. The party, which secured 19 seats in Bihar during the 2020 Assembly polls, is currently leading in just five seats. The Congress's ally RJD has also underperformed, while the NDA appears poised for a decisive victory in Bihar.