KCR’s party paints Telangana pink again
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. The 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.
Telugu Desam, which had contested on 14 seats as part of Praja Kutami alliance suffered humiliating defeat and got wiped out from the state.