Cong wins Jubilee Hills Assembly bypoll, shot in arm for CM Revanth Reddy
Hyderabad (PTI): Congress candidate V Naveen Yadav on Friday won the by-election to Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency by a majority of over 24,729 votes.
Yadav secured 98,988 votes, while his nearest BRS rival Maganti Sunitha got 74,259 votes, election officials said.
BJP nominee Lankala Deepak Reddy, who managed to obtain 17,061 votes, stood third and forfeited his security deposit.
Yadav had consistently maintained his lead over his BRS rival in all the rounds during the counting of votes at the Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy indoor stadium here.
The bypoll was necessitated by the death of BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath in June this year following a heart attack.
BRS fielded his widow Sunitha as its candidate.
Consequent to the Jubilee Hills win, the strength of ruling Congress rose to 66 in 119-member Telangana Assembly.
Congress leaders and activists were in joy as Yadav's victory became certain during the counting of votes.
They burst crackers and distributed sweets at Gandhi Bhavan here, the headquarters of Congress in Telangana.
The victory of Congress in Jubilee Hills by-election, preceded by its win in the bypoll to Secunderabad Cantonment segment held last year, further strengthens Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy's leadership.
Though the outcome of the by-election would have no bearing on the government's stability, it was seen as a test of the Congress government's popularity.
The Jubilee Hills by-election became crucial for BRS as it drew a blank in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, preceded by its shock defeat in the 2023 assembly polls.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president B Mahesh Kumar Goud said the party candidate's win in the bypoll is an endorsement of the Revanth Reddy government's performance.
The success of Congress in the bypolls to Secunderabad Cantonment seat last year and Jubilee Hills now shows that the people are satisfied with CM Reddy's leadership and the government's welfare programmes, he said.
"When BRS won zero seats in 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it was clear that it did not have any future in the state. BRS has failed to retain its seat now. The verdict of the people of Jubilee Hills is that BRS has no place in the state," Goud told reporters in Nizamabad.
The Congress government would work as per the aspirations of the people for the remaining three years of its current tenure and the party would win 100 of the total 119 seats in the next assembly polls in 2028 , he said.
BRS Working President K T Rama Rao said the bypoll result unambiguously showed that his party is the alternative to the ruling Congress.
Asserting that the BRS has effectively exposed the Congress government's failure during the last two years, he said the grand old party did not win any bypolls from 2014 to 2023, but managed to come to power in the assembly polls in 2023.
Speaking to reporters in Delhi, BJP leader and Union Coal Minister G Kishan Reddy pointed out that the AIMIM supported the Congress candidate. Of the total four lakh votes in Jubilee Hills, Muslim voters constitute 1.49 lakh.
Moreover, the Congress and BRS distributed money on a large scale and the state government did not cooperate with the Election Commission, he alleged, favouring elimination of money power in the elections.
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Two arrested in K'taka for assaulting minors, uploading CSAM content
Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said.
A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.
Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.
Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.
Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.
Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.
The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.
According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet.
"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.
