Discarded by the wayside were the Congress heavyweights, among them Mr Srinivas, the former MP, Mr A. Indrakaran Reddy, the former ministers, Mr G. Vinod, Mr J. Ratnakara Rao and Mr Shabbir Ali. The plight of the Telugu Desam was worse: The party conceded Vemulavada, and lost its deposit in the process.

The TD chief, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, saw the results as a setback caused by the party concentrating on the Babli project and ignoring the bypoll campaign.

The bypoll results are set to bring several changes both at government and at the Congress organisational level if at all the mood in the party headquarters in Delhi is anything to go by. Mr Srinivas, it is reliably learnt, has submitted his resignation to the party president. Congress sources indicated that a high-level review of the disaster electoral disaster will take place shortly before the leadership initiates some corrective steps.