BJP’s three Telangana MPs, Eatala Rajender suffer defeat in Assembly polls

Hyderabad: All three MPs of the BJP and its key leader Eatala Rajender suffered defeat in Telangana Assembly elections, the results of which were declared on Sunday.

BJP national General Secretary and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay lost to BRS candidate and Civil Supplies Minister Gangula Kamalakar by over 4,000 votes in Karimnagar constituency.

Bandi Sanjay was removed as BJP state President a few months ago and replaced by Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy.

Barring Kishan Reddy, the BJP had fielded all its MPs in the Assembly elections.

Nizamabad MP Arvind Dharampuri, who had defeated KCR’s daughter K. Kavitha in Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency in 2019, lost to Kalvakuntla Sanjay of the BRS in Koratla constituency by over 10,000 votes.

Adilabad MP Soyam Bapu Rao lost to Anil Jadhav of the BRS by 22,800 votes in Boath constituency.

Though, the BJP improved its tally to eight from one in 2018, it also suffered big setbacks. It lost two of its sitting MLAs, who were elected in the bypolls.

Former minister and sitting MLA Eatala Rajender failed to retain Huzurabad, losing to P. Kaushik Reddy of the BRS by 16,873 votes.

Rajender, who is member of the BJP National Executive and also Chairman of party’s election management committee also suffered defeat in Gajwel, losing to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao by a huge margin of 42,352 votes.

Rajender had quit the BRS and joined the BJP after the Chief Ministerdropped him from the Cabinet in 2021. In the by-election held the same year, he had retained Huzurabad seat as a BJP candidate. The victory had given BJP a big boost and the saffron party had started projecting itself as the only viable alternative to the BRS.

Another sitting MLA of BJP, M. Raghunandan Rao was also defeated. He lost to the BRS candidate and Medak MP K. Prabhakar Reddy by 53,513 votes. He was elected from Dubbak in a by-poll held in 2020. The saffron party had wrested the seat from BRS.

BJP’s only sitting MLA who retained the seat is Raja Singh. The controversial leader scored a hat-trick from Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad, defeating Nand Kishore Vyas of BRS by 21,457 votes. Booked for hate speeches on many occasions, he was arrested in August last year after he made certain derogatory comments about Prophet Mohammad, triggering massive protests.

He was sent to jail under Preventive Detention (PD) Act. The BJP had also suspended him. Raja Singh was released in November after the Telangana High Court set aside PD Act proceedings against him. The BJP recently revoked his suspension and fielded him again from Goshamahal.