Did HYDRAA Really Show Any Impact in the Jubilee Hills Bypoll?

The political rhetoric of ‘Car vs Bulldozer’ fight used by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi(BRS) throughout the high-stakes Jubilee Hills election campaign ended as a futile exercise for KTR and his team as Revanth Reddy led Congress party clinched the seat with a decisive mandate. Naveen Yadav’s huge majority of 24,000 votes is now perceived as a validation for the activities carried out by HYDRAA in the last one year. 

Referring Revanth Reddy’s brain child HYDRAA ( Hyderabad Disaster Management and Asset Protection Agency) as a ‘Destructive Force’, the BRS party tried to cash in on the voter sentiment. BRS working president KTR tried to highlight the plight of the residents who suffered due to the demolition drives carried out by the agency led by senior bureaucrat AV Ranganathan during the high decibel campaigns before the prestigious polls. But, majority of voters in Jubilee Hills seems to be unperturbed by HYDRAA’s work so far. 

Before the election schedule was announced, HYDRAA carried out its demolition drives and removed large-scale encroachments within Jubilee Hills constituency. Political analysts and psephologists believed that HYDRAA will have considerable negative impact in the outcome of these polls for the Congress party. However, the result gave a huge cheer to both HYDRAA and Revanth Reddy.

The Jubilee Hills bye-election is billed as a referendum for the two year term of the ruling dispensation. Besides rolling out several welfare schemes, Revanth Reddy brought HYDRAA in July 2024 to reclaim encroached lands, lakes and parks all over the city. BRS alleged that Revanth Reddy is taking revenge of the people in Hyderabad city after his party failed to win a single seat in the 2023 election within the Greater Hyderabad limits.  

Despite KTR’s all out efforts, BRS failed to retain the seat which was vacated by the demise of former MLA Maganti Gopinath. This is a huge setback for both KTR and the party which has already been rocked by the internal rift with KCR’s daughter Kavitha who was ousted from the party for her anti-party statements. 

HYDRAA commissioner AV Ranganathan also welcomed the result and stated that the residents across the city understand the purpose of the agency and slammed BRS for trying to portray it as a negative force.