Telangana election results 2019: TRS gets its arithmetic wrong, fails to see Modi wave coming

HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) was firmly placed to bag 16 of 17 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. But that really remained on paper. The party won only nine seats, bringing down its tally from 11 in the 2014 elections. In fact, with a Congress, a TDP and YSRCP MP joining it, the party’s tally had gone up to 14, but difference in the number of seats it won in 2019 has been considerable.
Notwithstanding the confidence talk, reality turned out to be different for the party as BJP made inroads and Congress staged a comeback.TRS had to be content with just nine seats. The biggest upset for the party was the defeat of KCR’s daughter Kavitha Kalvakuntla from Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat, where she was eyeing a second consecutive term. BJP’s D Aravind, with no electoral experience, trounced her.
Another shocker to the TRS was the win of KCR’s bête noire, A Revanth Reddy of Congress from Malkajgiri. TRS had been successful in defeating Revanth Reddy from his Kodangal Assembly constituency in December 2018 elections. TRS had, during the 2018 Assembly polls, ensured the defeat of KCR’s biggest critic Komatireddy Venkat Reddy from Nalgonda, but Reddy fought back and won the Bhongir Lok Sabha constituency, defeating the incumbent TRS candidate, Boora Narsaiah Goud.
Looking at it differently, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s gamble, in a way, seems to be have paid off when he got the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls separated. Perhaps sensing a Modi wave would affect electoral prospects of TRS in the assembly polls, KCR got the house dissolved and went in for early polls. In September 2018, he dissolved the Assembly, elections for which were held in December 2018. The Lok Sabha elections were held after four months.
To consolidate the position of TRS, which had got re-elected, KCR did more. The strength of TRS in the Assembly, which was 88, went up to 100 as some Congress MLAs chose to join TRS. It became a regular affair as more leaders from BJP and Congress were given entry into TRS with KT Rama Rao being made TRS working president.
In 2014, when polls were held simultaneously for Assembly and Lok Sabha, TRS won 11 Lok Sabha seats. YSRC’s P Srinivasa Reddy, who won the Khammam seat, later joined TRS. Congress MP from Nalgonda, G Sukhendar Reddy, also shifted loyalties and joined TRS.
In 2014, Bandaru Dattatreya of BJP won the Secunderabad seat and MIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi won the Hyderabad seat. The Nagarkurnool seat was won by Nandi Yellaiah of Congress. The tally of TRS increased to 14 with Srinivas Reddy and Sukhendar Reddy joining TRS. For the 2019 polls, TRS had targeted 16 seats.
TRS candidates who won are: Rajith Reddy from Chevella, B Venkatesh (Peddapalle), BB Patil (Zahirabad), P Ramulu from Nagarkurnool, P Dayakar from Warangal, K Prabhakar Reddy from Medak, Maloth Kavitha from Mahbubabad, M Srinivas Reddy from Mahbubnagar and Nama Nageshwara Rao from Khammam.