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

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