TRS leading in Telangana by-polls

Proving that the Telangana sentiment is still strong, TRS retained Siddipet, Sirpur, Dharmapuri and Chennur seats with huge majority and wrested Vemulawada seat from Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

TRS leader T. Harish Rao has set a record by retaining Siddipet seat with a margin of 95,858 votes, breaking the record of former chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who was re-elected from Pulivendula constituency in Kadapa district last year with a margin of 68,681.

Harish Rao came second in last year's elections in terms of victory margin with 64,677 votes.

The candidates of both the ruling Congress and main opposition Telugu Desam Party in Siddpet constituency in Medak district lost their deposits.

Harish Rao is the nephew of TRS chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao and has been winning the seat ever since the latter moved to the Lok Sabha after the 2004 elections.In a major blow for the ruling Congress party, the state unit chief D. Srinivas lost the Assembly by-election.

In a repeat of the 2009 result, Srinivas was defeated by BJP's A. Lakshminarayana by a margin of 12,200 votes in Nizamabad Urban constituency.

The result has come as a big jolt to Srinivas, who was planning to join the state cabinet and was even emerging as a possible successor to Chief Minister K. Rosaiah.