Hyderabad, Oct 12 (IANS) After a hibernation of more than a year following her shocking defeat in Lok Sabha elections, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Raos daughter K. Kavitha returned to active politics with her election to the State Legislative Council on Monday.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) candidate scored the victory with a huge majority in by-election to upper House of the State Legislature from Nizamabad Local Authorities Constituency.
Out of 823 votes polled in the elections held last Friday, Kavitha secured 728 votes.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate P. Laxminarayana was a distant second with 56 votes while Congress party’s V. Subhash Reddy polled only 29 votes. Both the candidates lost their deposits.
Ten votes were declared invalid by the election authorities.
Barring one, all voters had cast their votes. With the ruling party enjoying an overwhelming majority, Kavitha’s victory was a foregone conclusion.
However, the chief minister had cautioned party leaders against complacency and directed them to ensure her victory with a huge majority.
Celebrations broke out in TRS camp soon after declaration of the result. Talking to reporters Kavitha thanked TRS MPs, MLAs, MLCs, corporators, councilors and other voters for electing her with a huge majority.
Roads and Buildings Minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy said the TRS cadres were elated over Kavitha’s victory. He said she is ready to play whatever role Chandrasekhar Rao assigns her. The minister did not rule out a cabinet berth for Kavitha.
The 42-year-old had received a shock defeat at the hands of BJP’s D. Arvind in Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency last year. It was a big blow for the Chief Minister’s daughter who was elected from the same constituency in 2014.
Since then, Kavitha had gone into hibernation and was hardly making public appearances.
Kavitha had joined the movement for statehood to Telangana in 2008 after returning from the US and floated Telangana Jagruthi to give cultural thrust to the movement.
She is popular among TRS supporters, especially among women for organising and leading annual Bathukamma celebrations. Recently, she became active to lend a helping hand to people stranded in the Gulf during the pandemic.
The former MP is also active over social media. Recently she clocked one million followers on Twitter. She is said to be first woman politician in South India to reach this mark
She is the only daughter of KCR. Her brother K.T. Rama Rao is a senior cabinet minister and considered number two in the government and the party.
The vacancy in the Council caused by disqualification of incumbent R. Bhupathi Reddy provided an opportunity to the TRS leaders to push for Kavitha’s candidature. At the request of party leaders from Nizamabad, KCR agreed to field his daughter.
Bhupathi of the TRS was disqualified after he defected to Congress ahead of the Assembly elections in 2018.
As per the notification issued by the Election Commission on March 12, the polling was to be held on April 7. However, it was postponed thrice due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Originally it was expected to be a 22-month tenure for Kavitha in Council but the postponement has further reduced it.
–IANS
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