Hyderabad: The Congress hopes to secure a second Assembly seat in Hyderabad by winning the bypolls in the Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency following the death of BRS incumbent Maganti Gopinath.The Congress, which drew a blank in the state capital in the 2023 Assembly polls, opened its account from Hyderabad by winning the Secunderabad Cantonment bypoll in June 2024 after the untimely death of Lasya Nanditha in February 2024.In the 2023 Assembly polls, Maganti Gopinath secured 80,549 votes and defeated the Congress candidate Mohammad Azharuddin with a majority of over 16,000 votes. The BJP’s Lanka Deepak Reddy remained at the third place. In the ensuing bypolls, however, a triangular contest is on the cards with all three parties — the Congress, the BRS and the BJP — going all out to win the seat to set the narrative for the upcoming GHMC elections. The probable candidates from the Congress are Khairatabad District president Dr C. Rohin Reddy, former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin, Telangana Minorities ResidentialEducational Institutions Society (TMREIS) vice-chairman Faheem Qureshi and V. Naveen Yadav.Increasing stakes in the bypoll, the Congress is likely to induct the winner of Jubilee Hills into the Cabinet to strengthen the party further in the city ahead of the GHMC polls. The BJP has to choose between Lankala Deepak Reddy, who secured third place in the 2023 Assembly election, and Keerthi Reddy Juturu, who was initially projected as the BJP candidate from Jubilee Hills.In the 2023 Assembly polls, the BRS candidate got comparatively lesser voters because of two factors — The support extended by corporators — Baba Fasiuddin from Borabanda and C.N. Reddy from Rahmanth Nagar — to the Congress candidate and the AIMIM candidate preventing Muslim votes polling for Gopinath. Maganti Gopinath used to share good rapport with youngsters and was accessible to people from slums and members of resident welfare associations (RWAs) who were more loyal to their MLA than the party who gave him the ticket. He was extremely good with poll management, his agents and relievers in the polling stations used to take care of the responsibilities extremely well and his absence could affect the BRS’ prospects in bypolls. Unless the BRS fields one of Maganti’s family members as its candidate, it will not benefit from the sympathy factor.The potential candidates from the BRS are Ravula Sridhar Reddy, who aspired for the MLA ticket from Jubilee Hills earlier, and P. Vishnuvardhan Reddy, who joined the pink party leaving the Congress.