It was supposed to be a cakewalk for Telangana Rashtra Samithi, but stunned party leaders couldn't find reasons why the party lost the prestigious Dubbaka by election in Telangana, today.

When, the by-elections were announced, TRS did not have to think twice about who its candidate would be. KCR announced that Sujatha, wife of late Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy, would be their candidate for Dubbaka.

BJP leader Raghunandan Rao, who lost twice from Dubbaka Assembly Constituency was determined to correct the course this time. Infact, Raghunandan started working in Dubbaka, soon after the demise of MLA Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy. This paid off as he had a head start compared to the TRS and Congress candidates. While TRS assumed that the sympathy factor would work for its candidate, Congress had to scramble to find a candidate, who turned out to be a TRS defector who jumped ship, after being denied a ticket.

One of the reasons for the anger among voters, was Mallana Sagar oustees who did not get proper compensation and that led to a lot of heartburn in a number of villages. Apart from that, a large number of voters specially youngsters were upset at the lopsided development of Dubbak when compared to the nearby Gajwel, Sircilla, and Siddipet - constituencies represented by Chief Minister, his Son and Nephew, respectively.

The election campaign was proceeding smoothly, till a ruckus broke out after Police raided the house of a relative of Raghunandan Rao in Siddipet and siezed money which they allege was going to be used to influence the Dubbaka poll. The same evening, BJP Telangana State President and Lok Sabha MP Bandi Sanjay was manhandled by a senior Police officer. These two incidents resulted in anger among BJP karyakarthas, who then descended in thousands from different parts of the state, to campaign for Raghunandan Rao in Dubbaka.

The BJP ran a very effective door to door campaign that focussed on the neglect of Dubbaka by the TRS government. Looking back, the historic win of BJP in Dubbaka can be a case study of how the party should run a campaign in a state where they do not have a substantial presence. This is despite the fact that money and muscle power was deployed in plenty, with Minister Harish Rao personally leading a hands on campaign for his party. BJP, on the other hand threw in its senior leaders including Bandi Sanjay, Jitender Reddy, Vinod Venkatswamy, DK Aruna into the campaign.

The slender margin of victory, 1079 votes that Raghunandan Rao secured to win at Dubbaka, was reflected in the nail biting finish which went down to the wire, right till the last round of counting. For TRS, the loss is something that the party will take a long time to digest. Minister and Party Working President KT Rama Rao, indicated in the media briefing, there will be a detailed analysis to determine the reasons for this loss.

For BJP, this upset win gives the party a reason to challenge the Indian National Congress as the opposition party in Telangana. That would be the second beachhead down South, after having established itself in Karnataka. It's not going to be easy, but Politics as they say, is the art of the possible.