Congress party continues its victory march in Telangana politics with its candidate, V. Naveen Yadav, a backward class leader on the verge of winning in the byelection to the Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency on Friday (November 14, 2025).
After wresting the Secunderabad Cantonment seat in June 2024, Congress party wrested the Jubilee Hills seat too from the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS). The Secunderabad Cantonment byelection was necessitated by the death of incumbent member Lasya Nanditha in a tragic road accident. Congress nominee Narayanan Sri Ganesh had won the Cantonment seat by a margin of over 13,200 votes in 2024.
The Jubilee Hills byelection was necessitated after the passing away of BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath in June this year. Congress pitched for Naveen Yadav, while the main opposition BRS chose to field late Gopinath’s wife Maganti Sunitha, while the BJP chose Lankala Deepak Reddy as its nominee.
In a keenly contested triangular fight between the Congress, BRS and the BJP, the ruling party’s strategy and intensive focus on reaching out to the nook and corner of the constituency appears to have ensured its smooth sailing through the polls. Led by the Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and team comprising Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and a dozen Ministers, the Congress cadres did not give any scope to the Opposition parties in terms of campaigning.
Development agenda
Harping on the development agenda and the 10 year misrule of the BRS regime, the Congress hit the bulls eye projecting the BRS and the BJP as an enemy to development of the State. BRS working president K.T.Rama Rao and the Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy bore the brunt of the scathing attack by the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues. The campaign touched a new low with all parties indulging in personal attacks and below the belt remarks.
Top Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) functionaries said that during elections, rural voters generally prefer to vote for a party that woos them with welfare centric schemes while in urban areas, development plank is given a pride of place. “In case of Jubilee Hills, the Congress party has gone on record that development and improving the city infrastructure was on the top of its agenda,” a senior leader said adding that this has helped the ruling party in consolidating the votes.
Another leader said the Congress party’s tactical decision to field a BC and a youth leader as its candidate only cemented its commitment of taking forward the decision of 42% quota for the BC’s in local bodies. The BRS and the BJP chose to give tickets to forward caste candidates, which helped the ruling Congress and its candidate Naveen Yadav — who is a local.
Crucial minority votes
Eyeing the influential minority votes, the Congress Government in a surprise move inducted former MP Md. Azharuddin into the State Cabinet in the midst of the electioneering, there by sending a positive signal among the Muslim voters, who number over a lakh in the constituency. The AIMIM openly supporting the Congress candidate only added to the shift of Muslim votes to the Congress party, which hitherto in the last two elections had stayed with the BRS.
The unity among the Congress leaders — particularly the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and scores of Ministers — aided by the TPCC chief B. Mahesh Kumar Goud and AICC in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan and their extensive campaign improved the prospects of the ruling party nominee. A sort of sympathy for Mr. Naveen Yadav, who lost twice from the same constituency, also helped him garner votes.
BRS graph falls further
For the BRS, its downslide continues since losing power in 2023 and drawing a blank in the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. It also conceded ground to the Congress in the Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly byelection and now it is on the verge of losing Jubilee Hills seat also.
Sources maintained that the absence of former Chief Minister and BRS supremo K. Chandrashekar Rao, who stayed away from campaign, was visible. The entire burden of leading the campaign fell on KTR and he had to lead the party from the front. The bereavement in the family of former Minister T. Harish Rao also came as a setback as Mr. Harish Rao could not actively participate. It was pointed out that senior party leaders also did not wholeheartedly campaign in the election for the party candidate.
Poor show by BJP
For the BJP, the Jubilee Hills byelection result is a nightmare as the party candidate, Mr. Deepak Reddy, lagged a distant third right from the first round of counting. The party lost deposit. It is believed that the BJP leadership did not wholeheartedly campaign in the election. The bulk of the campaign fell on the party president N. Ramchander Rao and the occasional campaign by the Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy did not cut ice with the electorate. The Hindutva agenda put forth by another Union Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar to polarise the voters did not impact the outcome.
The Congress party can not afford a laid back attitude after its impressive victory in Jubilee Hills byelection, as it has to go a long way in repeating its winning ways in the local bodies polls also.