Hyderabad: The wait of Telangana Congress chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy, who vowed not to shave his beard till Congress comes to power in the state, just got longer with the party-led alliance slumping to a heavy defeat in the assembly elections.
Reddy was declared elected from Huzurnagar constituency in Suryapet district Tuesday after he secured more than 8,200 votes against his TRS rival Saidi Reddy.
Uttam Kumar Reddy's wife Padmavathy Reddy lost by a narrow margin of over 200 votes to her nearest TRS rival Mallaih Yadav in the neighbouring Kodad.
A former Indian Air Force pilot, Reddy who always looked clean shaved, had in 2016 after he became Telangana Pradesh Congress chief, said, "I will maintain the beard till Congress comes to power in Telangana."
A visibly upset Reddy Tuesday said there was a strong suspicion that EVM machines could have been 'manipulated' and demanded 100 percent counting of VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) paper trails in all constituencies.
The TPCC chief who served as ADC and Comptroller to the President and flew MIG-21 and MIG-23 aircrafts while in the Air Force, had always been a clean shaven man.
K Chandrasekhar Rao had dissolved the Assembly in September, eight months ahead of schedule in a political gamble that paid off handsomely in the elections, with his party the TRS decimating its rivals, winning 84 of the 119 seats in the assembly.
The Congress won 18, while the Asaduddin Owaisi led AIMIM, which supported TRS, bagged seven.
The BJP bagged just one seat.
