Telangana polls: TRS set to form govt with huge majority

The Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS), led by K Chandrasekhar Rao is heading for a thumping victory and retain power in the 119 member, Telangana State Legislative Assembly, elections to which were held on December 7.

With firm leads in 86 seats, the TRS is sure to hand out a drubbing to the Praja Front (Cong(I), TDP, CPI & TJS), a grand alliance of opposition parties, which tried to put up a formidable challenge.

The TRS Chief has shown not just that he bucked anti-incumbency, but also proved right the calculated gamble he took by dissolving the Legislative Assembly nine months ahead of the schedule of May 2019.

KT Rama Rao, son of KCR and Minister for IT & Industries, T Harish Rao, Irrigation Minister and nephew registered impressive wins. The TRS Legislature Party is meeting in the evening to formally elect K Chandrasekhar Rao as its leader. The swearing-in is expected to be held on Wednesday.

Schemes 'touched' voters

The election results reflect the endorsement of KCR’s slew of welfare schemes that touched atleast one member in every family and support to his vision and mission programmes that promise a 'Bangaru (golden) Telangana’. Schemes like the Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Insurance, Bathukamma sarees and 24-hr free power did the trick for the TRS. 

The voters have also given one more chance in tune with the TRS slogan of ‘Aur ek baar, KCR’. The TRS chief, who advanced elections, argued that the 'massive and varied’ development projects that his government undertook and the high growth being achieved would be derailed if his Party did not get a second term. In a way, the electorate has heard his plea.

The Cong(I) led Praja Front performance looks poor as it leads in just 23 constituencies and most of its top leaders on the verge of biting the dust. Its a case of failing a second time to encash on the goodwill of Sonia Gandhi and Congress granting a separate Telangana State.

It also shows that the grand alliance failed to get their act together, quickly complete seat allocation and reach the electorate in the rural areas with the campaign that the TRS was corrupt, family ruled and had failed to implement major promises in the 2014 elections.

Though, the alliance with the TDP looked formidable in the beginning, the campaign by N Chandrababu Naidu and Nandamuri Balakrishna in Telangana seemed to have turned negative. The credit goes to KCR for launching a blistering attack on Naidu, whom he described as number one enemy of Telangana and his involvement would mean remote control from Amaravati, in case power was given to the Praja Front.

Though, the Telangana sentiment was not visible in the early phase, the combination of Cong(I), TDP and some of their utterances seemed to have revived them in several pockets of the State. The PR has to review the shock it has recieved and also the poor performance of most of its `big guns’, who did not campaign actively and were more bothered about leadership, post elections.

The latest trends puts the TRS with a total of 86 seats. Of this, they have won 7 seats and are leading in 79 seats. The Congress is leading in 21 seats and the TDP in 2 seats. The BJP and the All India Forward Bloc are leading in 1 seat each, while AIMIM  is leading in five places.

PTI adds

“The people reposed faith in the leadership of our chief minister and they did not believe in the disinformation campaign of the opposition,” said T Harish Rao, a minister in the outgoing government and a nephew of Rao.

The first two confirmed results have gone in favour of the TRS with its candidates M Sanjay Kumar and Sunke Ravishankar winning the Jagtial and Choppadandi seats.

Despite allegations of perpetuating “family rule”, KCR, as the caretaker chief minister is popularly known, his son K T Rama Rao and nephew T Harish Rao have established comfortable leads over their rivals in Gajwel, Sircilla and Siddipet constituencies respectively.

Celebrations erupted in TRS offices throughout the state as well as in the Telangana Bhavan, the party headquarters in Hyderabad. TRS activists dancing to drum-beats, burst firecrackers and distributed sweets.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi party workers celebrate after the initial trends show the party leading in the State, at Telangana Bhavan in Hyderabad.

Senior TDP leader Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy said the factors leading to the drubbing needed to be analysed. “We were expecting to get more seats. The results are not to our expectations. we have to analyse and introspect where it went wrong, and we have to work together,” Reddy told PTI , adding peoples verdict needed to be respected.

The Congress said it suspected “manipulation” of the Electronic Voting Machines, and demanded that all votes be counted using the VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) to ascertain the exact number of votes polled by each candidate.

“Going by the distorted trends, there is a strong suspicion that EVM machines have been manipulated. We demand that 100 percent counting of VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) must be taken up in all constituencies. All Congress candidates should submit letters to their returning officers demanding counting of VVPAT paper trails,” a communication from the Congress quoted state party president N Uttam Kumar Reddy as saying.

With defeat staring the opposition alliance in the face, CPI general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy alleged: “Huge distribution of money, particularly on the last day (before the election)...purchasing the votes..this must have resulted in this victory for TRS.”

Claiming that the elections were not free and fair, Reddy said it was not a moral but only “technical” victory for the TRS. The Congress had forged an pre-poll opposition alliance with the TDP, Telangana Jana Samiti and the CPI.