Meet Katipally Venkata Ramana Reddy - the businessman-politician who beat the BRS' K Chandrasekhar Rao, the departing Chief Minister, and his successor, the Congress' Revanth Reddy.
The BJP entered the polls, promising a chief minister from the backward classes and conceding to sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes. On both the issues, party s central leadership held public meetings as well.
With 119 seats up for grabs, the gap between the national party and the BRS was widening as the latter was leading only in 36 segments, even as party supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was trailing in one of the two seats he had contested from.