Hyderabad, Dec 3:
After ruling Telangana for nearly a decade, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) had to bow out as the Congress party swept the Assembly elections.
The Congress bagged 64 seats in 119-member Assembly to come to power in India’s youngest state. The grand old party tasted success after two successive defeats in 2014 and 2018 despite claiming credit for granting statehood to Telangana.
The Telangana outcome was a consolation win for Congress, which suffered defeats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
- Chandrasekhar Rao-led BRS could win just 39 seats, a huge drop from 88 it bagged in 2018. After luring a dozen MLAs of Congress and four MLAs of other parties, the BRS had taken its tally to a whopping 104.
The BJP, which won only one seat in 2018 but increased its tally to three by winning two seats in the by-elections, improved its position by bagging eight seats. It also increased its vote share.
All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) retained its seven seats – Charminar, Nampally, Yakutpura, Bahadurpura, Chandrayangutta, Karwan and Malakpet, which it had been winning since 2009. However, its margin of victory drastically came down in Yakutpura and Nampally. A friendly party of BRS, it had contested nine seats, all in Hyderabad and had appealed to Muslims in the remaining constituencies to vote for BRS.
No Muslim candidate of either Congress or BRS was elected. Mohammed Shakil Amir, the lone sitting Muslim MLA of BRS, lost to P. Sudarshan Reddy of Congress by 3,062 votes in Bodhan in Nizamabad district. Amir, who was elected in 2014 and 2018, was the only Muslim candidate of BRS outside AIMIM strongholds.
Senior Congress leader and former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir lost to D. Suryanarayana of BJP by 15,387 votes in Nizamabad Urban constituency. He was elected twice to united Andhra Pradesh Assembly from Kamareddy in the past. This time, the Congress shifted him to Nizamabad Urban.
Former Indian cricket captain and Congress leader Mohammed Azharuddin too was defeated in Jubilee Hills constituency in Hyderabad. He lost to sitting MLA Maganti Gopinath of BRS by 16,337 votes. BJP candidate L. Deepak Reddy came third while AIMIM’s Rashed Farazuddin finished a distant fourth.
Former mayor Mir Zulfeqar Ali was elected from Charminar by a margin of over 22,000 votes against BJP’s M. Rani Agarwal. Kausar Mohiuddin was re-elected from Karwan by a huge margin of nearly 42,000 votes against BJP’s Amar Singh.
In Malakpet, Ahmed Bin Abdullah Balala emerged victorious once again by over 26,000 votes against Congress candidate Shaik Akbar.
AIMIM’s Jaffer Hussain scraped through in Yakutpura by only 878 votes against Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT) candidate Amjedullah Khan. In 2018, AIMIM had retained the seat by a margin of nearly 47,000 votes.
Mohammed Mubeen of AIMIM was elected from Bahadurpura by a massive margin of over 67,000 votes against Mir Inayath Ali Baqri of BRS.
AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi retained Chandrayangutta by a margin of 81,668 votes. He has been winning this seat since 1999.
AIMIM candidate Mohammed Majid Hussain was elected from Nampally in a close contest by a margin of only 2,037 votes against Congress candidate Mohammed Feroz Khan.
Voter fatigue and anti-incumbency in certain regions and sections of people led to BRS losing power in Telangana. The perception in some sections that top BRS leaders are arrogant and one family is ruling the state for nearly a decade and the anger among unemployed youth over frequent postponement of recruitment exams due to paper leak are the other key factors which led to the defeat of KCR-led party despite its claims of developing Telangana into a prosperous state.
The Congress, which won only 19 seats in 2018, had only five members in the dissolved Assembly as it lost a dozen MLAs to BRS, one to BJP and one seat in the by-election.
The grand old party, which had lost all the by-elections held since 2019 and had dismal performance in Greater Hyderabad municipal polls, appeared down and out till six months ago. It, however, bounced back after the victory in neighbouring Karnataka.
Banking on the six guarantees announced on the lines of promises made in Karnataka and aggressively taking on KCR over the family rule and alleged scams, the Congress came out with a dramatic improvement in its performance to capture power.
Led by Revanth Reddy, known for his aggressive brand of politics, the Congress party shattered the dreams of KCR to score a hat-trick.
KCR’s gamble of retaining all sitting MLAs and declaring the candidates about two months before the polls appeared to have cost the BRS dearly as many MLAs were facing anti-incumbency at the constituency level.
Revanth Reddy, who is likely to become the chief minister dedicated the victory to Telangana martyrs and vowed to work to fulfil their aspirations.
The TPCC chief declared that Congress will work for reviving democracy in the state and announced that the doors of the state Secretariat will be thrown open for the public. He also announced that Pragati Bhavan, the official residence of the chief minister, will be renamed as Babasahed Ambedkar Praja Bhavan.
Revanth Reddy was elected from his home constituency Kodangal by a huge margin of over 32,000 votes.
At least six ministers also lost the election. KCR’s son K.T. Rama Rao and nephew T. Harish Rao were among the ministers who could retain their seats.
Interestingly, while Congress had a near clean sweep in south Telangana and did well in north Telangana, it failed to win a single seat in Greater Hyderabad region, which has 24 seats.
BRS and AIMIM together retained 23 seats. BJP also retained its lone seat in the region Goshamahal. Raja Singh, who was arrested and jailed last year for blasphemous remarks, was elected from the constituency for a third term.
While all three MPs of BJP and two of its sitting MLAs lost the election, the saffron party managed to retain Goshamahal and increase its tally and vote percentage.