The BJP, in a nail-biting photo finish, on Tuesday won the Dubbaka assembly seat in Telangana from the ruling TRS, which has been taken aback by the shock defeat. Raghunandan Rao M, the winning candidate, has trumped S Sujatha of the TRS by leading her with 1,470 votes. He will join Tiger Raja Singh, who was the only BJP MLA from the State before the Dubbaka victory.

Y Satya Kumar of the BJP has said that the TRS has won despite a complete misuse of the state machinery. "They used all dirty tricks from vandalism to planting money at BJP Candidate’s house," he alleged.

CT Ravi, the saffron party's National General Secretary, wrote, "With this victory, BJP is now the only alternative to TRS in State. I am sure, we are on our way to becoming Telangana's Most Favoured Party in the coming days." Ram Madhav of the BJP tweeted, "Great showing by BJP in Telangana. Dubbak won by Raghunandan Rao of BJP despite the most undemocratic behaviour by ruling TRS. BJP emerges as d lone alternative to the TRS family raj. Hearty congrats to Bandi Sanjay Kumar and BJP Telangana."

The Congress party has come a distant third. Nobody saw it coming. The Grand Old Party was confident of putting up a decent fight.