As much as Raghunandan Rao won as an MLA in a by-election in a constituency, why such hype? Because, he travelled with TRS for ten years. The party leader became very close to KCR. TRS ideology and Telangana sentiment were heard loudly. Unfortunately, he was expelled from TRS. He contested for the Assembly twice. He contested for the Lok Sabha once, but he was defeated three times. That is why this time he is so unique in his success.
As a lawyer, he played a key role in the Telangana movement. That being said, there is a lot of story to be told. TRS is more focused on defeating Raghunandan Rao than defeating BJP. It is no exaggeration to say that TRS themselves made Raghunandan Rao a hero in this sequence
Finding money in Raghunandan’s relatives’ house, The police being very enthusiastic about this during the election , all these created a ‘sympathy’ for him. Above all, Raghunandan’s strategy of garnering ‘minority votes’ has shocked the TRS community. Although Minister KTR has been saying big words like ‘ We won’t be overwhelmed with the wins and we don’t crumble by failures’ , If you look at the difficulties that the party went through to win the Dubbaka by-election, it is understandable how TRS has taken this victory as a prestige issue. Had TRS won Dubbaka elections the reactions of the party leaders would have been discernible. It would not be an exaggeration to describe Raghunandan as a ‘giant killer’ if he defeated the TRS to the point of not being able to retain the sitting position. With this victory, Raghunandan is also campaigning for a key position in the party.