
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) has taken an unassailable lead of 32,560 votes in the Gajwel assembly seat, which has been with the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) since 2014. He is up against Tumkunta Narsa Reddy of Congress and BJP's Etela Rajender.
Rajender was earlier with the BRS, but he left the party after the chief minister dismissed him from the cabinet. He served as the minister of finance, and health in the KCR government. Following his dismissal from the cabinet, Rajender joined the BJP and is contesting from Gajwel, a seat held by CM KCR since 2014.
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KCR has won the seat twice, in 2014 and 2018. In the first assembly election, KCR govt 86,694 votes with 44.06 per cent vote share while TDP's Pratap Reddy Vanteru was the runner-up with 67,303 votes with 34.21 per cent vote share. Congress leader Tumkunta Narsa Reddy managed to get over 17 per cent vote share.
In the 2018 election, the chief minister, riding on his welfare schemes and development work, succeeded in increasing his victory margin. In this election, he secured over 60 per cent votes, up by 16 per cent. The Congress, which had fielded Pratap Reddy Vanteru, doubled its vote share to 32.36 per cent from 17 per cent in the previous election.
This year, Gajwel saw a three-cornered contest with KCR, BJP's Etela Rajender, and Congress leader Tumkunta Narsa Reddy. While KCR's position in the state gives him a certain advantage, Rajender tried to make inroads in his former boss' territory. Gajwel falls under the Medak Lok Sabha constituency, which the BRS is holding.
India Today-Axis My India had predicted a landslide victory for the Congress, with seat share projections from 63 to 73. The official result is in line with what was predicted in the exit polls. The Congress is likely to win 60-plus seats while BRS may have to settle with just nearly 40 seats.
This will be the end of KCR's 10-year rule in the state and Congress' second major victory in the southern state after Karnataka. The BJP is likely to 8 seats and Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM is on course to win 6 seats.