Hyderabad: The Telangana agitation being spearheaded by TRS today received a boost with the party retaining six of the 12 Assembly constituencies in Telangana region where by-elections were held recently and appeared to be heading for victory in five other segments. It was a one-sided contest as the counting of votes began this morning and TRS candidates registered impressive victories in Siddipet, Dharmapuri, Vemulawada, Chennur, Mancherial and Sirpur constituencies. The ruling Congress suffered a major setback as its state president D Srinivas lost from Nizamabad Urban and party nominees from other seats were also defeated by huge margins.

Srinivas, who lost the 2009 Assembly election too from Nizamabad, was defeated by his BJP rival Y Lakshmi Narayana by a margin of about 12,000 votes. TRS candidate in Siddipet T Harish Rao, nephew of party president K Chandrasekhar Rao, won with a huge margin of over 95,000 votes.