The high-profile by-election to Jubilee Hills assembly seat has turned into an intense triangular contest, with the Congress, BRS, and BJP all treating the seat as a prestige issue.
Analysts say votes from TDP and Jana Sena sympathizers, along with specific caste groups such as the Kamma community, could play a decisive role in determining the winner.
Jubilee Hills, known for its large population of settlers and film industry professionals, has become a complex battleground.
The Congress hopes to consolidate anti-BRS sentiment and retain the goodwill it enjoyed from TDP sympathizers in the 2023 elections, when the TDP did not field a candidate.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which initially said it has no understanding with any political party and would not seek support from its alliance partners in Andhra – Jana Sena Party and the Telugu Desam Party – is now facing a tough situation.
The party brought Andhra leaders like Bhupatiraju Srinivasa Varma and Sujana Chowdary to campaign in the Jubilee Hills by-poll to attract Andhra settlers, but it did not work out much. So, it was forced to seek the support of Jana Sena.
On Wednesday, Jana Sena Telangana unit president Shankar Goud announced the party’s support to the BJP in the by-election. He said party president Pawan Kalyan might also take part in the campaign.
However, the BJP has not sought the support of the TDP yet, though there are good number of Kamma voters in Jubilee Hills constituency. There has been no formal directive from the TDP, too, to back the BJP candidate.
Sources said in the absence of any directive from Naidu, both the Congress and BRS are aggressively courting the influential Kamma community, which accounts for nearly 22,000 votes in the constituency.
Revanth Reddy has personally met senior Kamma leaders, assuring them of symbolic gestures such as the installation of an N.T. Rama Rao statue at Maitrivanam — a move that reportedly helped consolidate their support for Congress.
On the other hand, BRS candidate Maganti Gopinath, who began his political career in the TDP during NTR’s era, continues to command loyalty from a section of TDP sympathizers.
Gopinath served as Telugu Yuvata president before joining the BRS and has been elected twice from Jubilee Hills.
Although the TDP is part of the NDA, it has maintained strategic silence over extending support in Telangana. Political observers note that the party’s organizational presence in the state is limited, making its voter base a floating bloc open to persuasion.
Congress insiders claim that the majority of TDP sympathizers have already shifted towards Revanth Reddy, while BRS leaders remain confident that Gopinath’s personal rapport with Kamma voters will hold firm.
