Hyderabad: Major setback for TRS, party reduced to single-digit LS seats

HYDERABAD: ‘Saru, caru, padaharu, Delhi lo sarkaru” (Sir-KCR, car-party’s election symbol, 16 seats and forming government in Delhi) was the slogan coined by Telangana Rasthra Samithi (TRS) when it eyed all the seats except the friendly contest with AIMIM in Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat.
However, the mandate of Telangana Lok Sabha polls left TRS red-faced on Thursday after it won just nine of the 17 seats in the state, with both BJP and Congress making inroads into the pink party’s bastions.It was only five months ago that the TRS had decimated the opposition in the assembly election, winning 88 of the 117 seats. The big story of the day is BJP has made significant gains in Telangana for the first time and will now vie to become the second largest party in the state as it won four Lok Sabha seats Secunderabad, Adilabad, Karimnagar and Nizamabad. Analysts saying that BJP gains have been in tribal as well as urban areas with large Muslim populations. KCR open tie up with AIMIM and Pro Modi wave has consolidated Hindu votes in Telangana too particularly in Muslim populated constituencies.
Congress won three seats Bhongir, Nalgonda and Malkajgiri. Congress big guns TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy, TPCC working president A Revanth Reddy and another senior leader Komatireddy Venkat Reddy emerged victorious. AIMIM's leader Asaduddin Owaisi won in Hyderabad with huge majority.
TRS has so far in 2019 LS polls got 41.3 per cent vote share and Congress 29.6 per cent vote share and BJP 19.3 per cent. TRS vote share in the recent Assembly polls was 47 per cent and it witnessed a drop of almost six per cent vote share. Congress vote share slightly improved from 28 per cent during assembly polls in 2018 December to now.
While it bagged four Lok Sabha seats BJP gave another shocker to TRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao. Rao’s daughter Kalvakuntal Kavita was defeated by BJP’s Arvind Dharmapuri in Nizamabad.
Telangana chief electoral officer Dr Rajat Kumar said, "EVM counting has been concluded in all 17 Lok Sabha constituencies. We are counting VVPATs. It will take four more hours and results may be declared after VVPAT counting. It will be late in the night by the time final results announced.”
Analysts believe that it is a wake-up call for K Chandrashekar Rao and Telangana will be the second gateway for BJP in south after Karnataka. BJP the party that won only one MLA in assembly polls won four MPs. The BJP vote share was just 7 per cent in 2018 Assembly polls and now it increased to 19.2 per cent. In the united AP BJP rose to 18 per cent post Kargil War in Vajpayee regime and now the Modi phenomena helped the party to grow, say analysts.
Political analyst Professor K Nageswar told TOI, "When compared to Assembly polls, there is a significant revival of Congress now. The perception is that KCR’s arrogance and inaccessibility increased after assembly victory. If Congress would have put spirited fight, they would have won more seats. Congress is now expected to perform better in local body polls too. Congress candidates abandoned the campaign in middle and it has become an added advantage to BJP. Rise of BJP will pose significant challenge to KCR in coming days. A look at the seats won will say the victory is significant considering the significant Muslim population like Karimnagar and Nizamabad. KCR’s alleged derogatory comments on Hindus also cost him ear. His open embracing of AIMIM proved costly. Like in West Bengal and elsewhere in around 50 Muslim dominated constituencies where BJP won it indicated the Hindu consolidation.”