TRS aims for sky, remains on road

From failed federal front plans to daughter Kavitha’s defeat, election results shattered many ambitions of party supremo KCR
A group of folk artists, hired to celebrate the Lok Sabha election victory of the TRS party, leaves the premises of Telangana Bhavan in Hyderabad after the results turned out to be different from those expected | s senbagapandiyan
A group of folk artists, hired to celebrate the Lok Sabha election victory of the TRS party, leaves the premises of Telangana Bhavan in Hyderabad after the results turned out to be different from those expected | s senbagapandiyan

HYDERABAD: The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which went to polls with the slogan “Karu-Padaharu-Sarkaru” (Car-16-Government), had hoped to win 16 Lok Sabha seats and play a key role in the formation of the next government at the Centre. The party, however, was in for a major shock on Thursday, winning only nine out of the 17 Lok Sabha seats.

Now, with the stupendous victory of BJP across the country, the TRS has no role to play now in Delhi. Besides, the party even failed to keep its 2014 tally of 11 Lok Sabha seats.

The TRS lost four seats - Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Adilabad and Bhongir - that it had won in 2014. Winning the Nagarkurnool and Khammam seats, meanwhile, was a matter of celebration for the party. This is the first time the party has won from either of the constituencies. This adds up to a total of nine Lok Sabha seats for the pink party, a matter of disappointment.

First setback for TRS
The 2019 Lok Sabha elections have proved the first setback for the ruling party, which has been on a winning spree from 2014. The TRS has since won all the elections it took part in, including byelections, gram panchayat elections and even GHMC polls. The worst part of the TRS’ dismal performance is the defeat of two top leaders -- K Kavitha in Nizamabad and B Vinod Kumar in Karimnagar. The loss is a hard pill for the pink party to digest.

What could be the reasons for this poor performance? Firstly, the party leadership seemed overconfident after its remarkable victory in the 2018 Assembly elections. The TRS leadership hoped that the people would rally behind the party this time well, as the gap between the polls was just five months. Additionally, a few national factors too seem to have worked against the TRS. 

The TRS dissolved the Assembly, went for early poll and won 88 seats. So, the people thought that the TRS had no problem in the State and supported the BJP and the Congress in 7 seats, considering national scenario. During the election campaign, the TRS chief could not attend a public meeting in Secunderabad. However, the party did not take any corrective measures and failed to organise another meeting. All of these factors could have contributed to BJP retaining the Secunderabad seat as well.

The TRS’ performance reached nadir within five months in Lok Sabha segments like Adilabad, Secunderabad. The TRS won all the ten seats in Adilabad district. But, lost the Adilabad Lok Sabha seat. In Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat the TRS won all the seven Assembly segments. When it comes to the Lok Sabha, the pink party could not retain its vote bank in Secunderabad LS seat. 

Major setback in Nizamabad, Karimnagar

In a huge shock to TRS party leaders and cadre alike, TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha tasted a rather embarassing defeat in the Lok Sabha elections on Thursday. Kavitha had been representing the constituency for the past five years. Dharmapuri Arvind of BJP defeated Kavitha by a margin of 69,732 votes. The Karimnagar segment, on the other hand, has been hallowed ground for the CM.

This is where he held his first public meeting after founding the Telangana Rashtra Samithi in 2001. Since then, only TRS men have won this seat. Rao himself has won here thrice (once in general elections, twice in byelections). Rao’s close confidante B Vinod Kumar represented Karimnagar in the Lok Sabha for the past five years. But everything changed on Thursday. Vinod Kumar lost to BJP’s Bandi Sanjay Kumar. In the seven Assembly segments in Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency, Vinod Kumar secured higher votes than his opponents only in Huzurabad, Husnabad and Sircilla

Small mercies

‘Other’ Kavitha surprises all with huge victory margin in Mahabubabad
Mahabubabad: TRS leader Maloth Kavitha’s victory from the Mahabubabad seat, with a margin of nearly 1.5 lakh votes has come as a surprise to many. Contesting against the Congress leader P Balram Naik and his rather aggressive campaign, at the least, the contest was expected to be neck-to-neck. However, Kavitha not only maintained her lead from the very first round, the tally only increased in her favour as the counting neared its end

TRS makes debut in Khammam, Nagarkurnool Lok Sabha segments
Khammam/Nagarkurnool: Over the years, Khammam has proved hard for the TRS to breach. However, Lok Sabha results 2019 finally spelled victory for the party, with TRS pick Nama Nageswara Rao winning against Congress’ Renuka Chowdhury with a majority of 1,66,429 votes. Similar is the case with Nagarkurnool Lok Sabha segment, where the TRS tasted victory for the first time. In the segment, TRS’ P Ramulu won by a margin of 1.8 lakh

Harish has last laugh in ‘friendly challenge’

Sangareddy: Over a month ago, TRS working president KT Rama Rao had thrown a ‘friendly challenge’ at his brother-in-law Harish Rao. For the latter, the challenge was to ensure that TRS candidate in Medak Prabhakar Reddy wins with a huge majority while KTR will try to work for an even better victory of Karimnagar contestant Vinod Kumar.

The ‘challenge’ came during a meeting on March 8, while KTR was dismissing reports of competition among the TRS leaders. Now, it looks like the stalwart from Siddipet is having the last laugh. The reason? Prabhakar Reddy won the Medak seat with a margin of 3,16,427 against his nearest rival Anil Kumar Gali of Congress. Vinod Kumar, on the other hand, suffered a shocking defeat in the hands of BJP’s Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who went on to win with a margin of 89,508 votes

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