Hyderabad: BRS sitting MLA Maganti Gopinath defeated Congress candidate Mohammad Azharuddin in the contest for the Jubilee Hills Assembly seat.
BJP’s Lankala Deepak Reddy came third in the contest.
The seat saw a rectangular contest with all the major parties of the state vying to win the upscale constituency.
While the BRS renominated two-time sitting MLA Maganti Gopinath (won as TDP candidate in 2014), the Congress roped in cricketer-turned politician Mohammad Azharuddin as its candidate. The contest got more interesting later with the AIMIM throwing in the towel by nominating Mohammed Rashed Farazuddin from the constituency.
Gopinath won the seat in 2014 by defeating then-AIMIM candidate Naveen Yadav by a margin of 9,000 votes. Post joining the BRS, he retained the seat with 16,000 votes over Congress’ Vishnuvardhan Reddy.
Naveen Yadav who was expecting the AIMIM to renominate him from the constituency, had to join the Congress after the party decided to go with Farazuddin. Vishnuvardhan Reddy, son of late Congress titan P Janardhan Reddy also joined the BRS after the party went with Azharuddin.
Out of the 356,995 eligible voters, 157,792 (44.2%) voters cast their ballot in this election.
Muslim voters (33%) play a key role in deciding the fate of the candidates here.
