Hyderabad:
Hyderabad was painted pink — the official colour of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti — as the party swept the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections.
Putting up a stunning performance, the TRS hit a ton winning 102 of the 150 seats in the civic body.
It has wiped out major political rivals Congress and the TDP-BJP alliance while the Muslim political party MIM retained its hold over the old city. Results and trends indicate that the party will win 36 seats, 7 less than 2009 indicating that the TRS wave did not leave even formidable MIM unaffected. All other parties winnings were in single digits.
The next mayor of Hyderabad will be a woman from the TRS.
With the TRS securing a clear majority, MIM’s strategy of sharing the power in GHMC through an alliance has come to a naught. It was a disappointment for the party, which had shared the power with the TDP and Congress in the past. While victory margin of TRS candidates in some places was 12,000 to 14,000, MIM won Jambagh seat by a thin margin of 5 votes. In a bitterly fought election, which culminated in a violent showdown during the polling on Tuesday, TDP-BJP alliance came third and the Congress party was reduced to a pathetic fourth position. The BJP and TDP could not retain their hold on the 13 assembly and two Lok Sabha seats they won in 2014.
TRS which launched an aggressive campaign to win the state capital was in full celebration mode as party did very well in many parts of the city. The victory for the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was especially sweet as his party was almost non-existing in Hyderabad city and surrounding areas. With great difficulty it had won only 3 of the 25 assembly seats in the 2014 elections. TRS rank and file gave the entire credit for party’s spectacular performance to KCR’s son and minister K Taraka Rama Rao who was the main commander of the party campaign.
Even in the Seemandhra strongholds of LB Nagar, Vanasthalipura, Kukatpally, Jubilee Hills Madhapur and Kondapur, the TRS performed well leaving the TDP-BJP alliance disappointed.
MIM retained its hold over its assembly seats of Charminar, Chandrayangutta, Malakpet, Nampally, Bahadurpura, Yakutpura.
As the picture became clearer, jubilant crowds gathered at the TRS headquarters Telangana Bhavan celebrating the victory by bursting crackers, shouting slogans of “KCR Zindabad” and distributing sweets.
Notable winners of the TRS include Vijaya Reddy, daughter of late senior Congress leader P Janardhan Reddy.
Prominent losers include former Mayor Karteeka Reddy of Congress. In 2009 Congress had emerged as the single largest party by winning 53 followed by TDP at 46, MIM at 43 and BJP 5. TRS was non-existent at the time.
Observers say the fact that the TRS was ruling the state and offered a balanced mix of development and welfare to the city populace worked in favour of the party.
The debacle of TDP-BJP alliance was a personal setback for Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu who along with his son N Lokesh had campaigned extensively along with many of his ministers and many Union Ministers of BJP.
The state BJP leaders, who were hoping to benefit from the settler voters by riding on the back of the TRS were in complete shock over the results. Same was the situation of Congress which had aggressively targeted the MIM in the old city.
Elaborate security arrangements were made outside all the 24 counting centres including the Lalbahadur Stadium where the counting of votes started at 3 pm. Section 144 was imposed in the city prohibiting any victory celebrations and processions. Additional police force was deployed at all the sensitive points to prevent any untoward incidents in view of the election violence on the day of the polling.
Earlier repolling was held in 36 polling stations of Puranapul division under heavy security arrangements involving 1,000 police personnel.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner K Mahinder Reddy personally supervised the arrangements in view of the allegations of irregularities on the polling day on Tuesday.
Of the 7.4 million voters, 45.27 per cent cast their votes in the polling on Tuesday marred by sporadic incidents of violence between the supporters of MIM, Congress, TRS and the BJP. This was marginally better than 2009 when the polling percentage was 42 per cent.
