Telangana has chipped in with eight seats for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which suffered heavily in the North, West and the neighbouring Karnataka. The party has doubled its tally from four that it won in 2019 elections, pushing the Bharat Rashtra Samithi to the third place.
Besides retaining all four seats (Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, and Secunderabad), the party won four more – Malkajgiri, Mahboobnagar, Chevella and Medak, cutting into the BRS vote base.
Interestingly, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Raghunandan Rao, and Eatala Rajender, the three prominent faces of the BJP that were defeated in the 2023 Assembly elections, succeeded in the Lok Sabha election. Businessmen Konda Visveshwar Reddy (BJP), and the richest candidate in Telangana, won from Chevella. Reddy, who won from the TRS in 2014, joined the BJP after he fell out with TRS President K Chandrashekar Rao.
MIM’s clinch
The BJP also set its eyes on the Hyderabad seat, a traditional stronghold of MIM for over four decades. It launched a high-profile campaign seeking a victory for entrepreneur-turned-politician Madhavilatha, whose histrionics hit the national headlines. MIM President Owaisi, however, clinched the seat with a majority of over 3.38 lakh votes.
Pinning hopes on Telangana, Prime Minister Modi visited the State five times and addressed rallies and public meetings. Amit Shah, J P Nadda, Annamalai and several other top leaders participated in several rallies to win 12-14 seats to compensate for the impending losses in the North and the neigbhouring Karnataka.
The election results are a big disappointment for Chief Minister and Pradesh Congress President A Revanth Reddy also. The party, which trounced the BRS in the 2018 elections, targetted winning 12-14 seats and helping the INDI bloc increase its tally nationally.
Top Congress campaigners Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka toured the State more than once to increase the party’s prospects.
Congress candidate from Nalgonda K Raghuvir registered a record majority of 5.59 lakh votes over BJP candidate Saidi Reddy.
The BRS, which spearheaded the movement for a separate State, cut a sorry figure by drawing a blank. It lost all the nine seats that it won in 2019. Worse still, in several Lok Sabha seats in the State, it ended up in third place, ceding the second place to BJP or Congress.