TRS paints Telangana pink again

Hyderabad: Telangana was once again painted pink when K. Chandrasekhar Rao-led Telangana Rashtra Samiti swept to power with an overwhelming three-fourths majority defeating the Congress-led People’s Front.

Even as counting was still in progress in some of the constituencies till Tuesday evening, TRS was all set to win 86 seats in the 119-member state assembly and form its government for the second consecutive term.

Helped by a potent combination of welfare and development programs, economic development and Telangana self respect TRS wiped the opposition out as the people gave thumbs up to KCR’s performance during the first term.

A meeting of TRS Legislature Party would be held in Hyderabad on Wednesday to formally elect KCR as leader. Later he will call on the governor ESL Narasimhan to stake the claim to form the government.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, which had extended active support to the TRS, retained its hold over its fortress Hyderabad.

At the other end of the spectrum Congress’ hope of wresting the state were shattered with party managing to win only 23 seats (same as 2014) while its other partners in the alliance Telugu Desam Party, CPI and Telangana Jana Samiti drew a blank.

BJP also suffered shocking defeat as it could win mere one seat down from five it had in the dissolved assembly. State BJP President K Lakshman was defeated in Musheerabad constituency.

In Amberpet senior BJP leader G Kishan Reddy lost to K Venkatesh of TRS. Party also lost Khairatabad and Uppal to the TRS.

Controversial leader Raja Singh, known for his provocative statement was the only BJP candidate to win. He retained his Goshamhal seat in Hyderabad by defeating Prem Singh Rathore of TRS by a margin of 15,000 votes. Mukesh Goud of Congress came third.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao won from Gajwel with an impressive majority of more than 51,514 votes defeating his nearest rival Vanteru Pratap Reddy of Congress. His victory margin was 19,366 in 2014.

His son K Taraka Rama Rao retained his Sricilla seat again with a huge margin of 80,000 votes.

But the day clearly belonged to T Harish Rao, KCR’s nephew and a minister who created a record by retaining his Siddipet seat with a massive margin of more than 100,000 votes. It was his sixth consecutive victory from the constituency which was represented four times by KCR in the past. Terming TRS win a “victory of Telagnana’s self respect”, Harish Rao profusely thanked the voter of Siddipet. “I will remain indebted to you forever and will try to repay by harking harder for the development of the constituency”, he said.

However, three of KCR’s ministers Tummala Nageshwara Rao from Paler in Khammam, Jupally Krishna Rao from Kolhapur in Mahbubnagar and Chandulal Ajmera from Mulug (ST) suffered defeat. In another setback Madhusudhan Chary, the speaker of the dissolved House was also defeated from Bhupalapally.

MIM had retained its seats of Chandrayangutta, Charminar, Yakutpura, Malakpet and Bahdurpura. It was leading in Nampally and Karwan. However MIM’s hope of increasing the tally to 8 could not be fulfilled.

Moazzam Ali Khan of MIM retained Bahadurpura with a record majority of 82,518 votes. Mumtaz Khan, who was shifted from Yakutpura to Charminar won the seat by a majority of 32,317 votes. It was his sixth consecutive victory. In Yakutpura Ahmad Pasha Quadri won comfortably. Earlier he used to represent Charminar.

Many stalwarts of Congress party were also uprooted in their traditional strongholds. They include K Jana Reddy in Nagarjuna Sagar, A Revanth Reddy in Kodangal, T Jeevan Reddy from Jagtiyal and Konda Surekha from Prakal. However, the state Congress President N Uttam Kumar Reddy romped home from Huzurnagar.

Telugu Desam, which had contested on 14 seats as part of Praja Kutami alliance suffered humiliating defeat and got wiped out from the state. TDP could not win even in the areas dominated by the people of Andhra origin known as settlers. Even Nandamuri Suhasini, grand daughter of TDP founder NT Rama Rao bit the dust in Kaukatpally though Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and film star Balakrishna had extensively campaigned for her.

Hyderabad city, with 16 seats was covered in pink and green as TRS along with MIM swept the city. Minister for municipal administration and urban development K Taraka Rama Rao, who had conducted an extensive campaign in the city thanked the people for their support. “Grateful, indebted and humbled”, he tweeted as the reports of victory flooded in. Thanks Telangana for keeping faith in KCR Garu and giving us another opportunity to serve you”.