Telangana: Assembly elections
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
2013, 2018
The results
From: [From the archives, Oct 10, 2023: The Times of India]
See graphic:
The results of the elections to the Legislature Assembly in Telangana in 2013, 2018
2018
The results
Comparisons with the 2013 assembly elections
From: December 12, 2018: The Times of India
See graphic:
The results of the Telangana assembly elections, 2018
Comparisons with the 2013 assembly elections
KCR/ TRS beat Cong’s Prajakutami
U Sudhakarreddy, KCR Tsunami Drowns Cong Prajakutami, December 12, 2018: The Times of India
Telangana’s ‘He-Man’ Adds Muscle With A 3/4th Majority
A pink tsunami drowned a united opposition in Telangana on Tuesday as sitting chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s TRS won the state’s first assembly election, bagging 88 of the 119 seats till results last came in. In 2014, when Telangana had been freshly bifurcated from Andhra Pradesh, TRS had only 63 seats. Turncoats had later taken its number to 90.
TRS crushed the Congress alliance, or prajakutami, garnering 46.9% of all votes polled. The Congress got just 28%. This is higher than what it polled in 2014 but not enough to even dent KCR, who is now planning to play an even bigger role in national politics by stitching together a third front. He has already given a call for a Congress- and BJP-mukt government at the Centre in 2019.
Analysts feel if the Congress alliance with TDP, TJS and CPI in Telangana is the model Rahul Gandhi plans to replicate nationally in 2019, he may have to rethink his strategy. Many observers also believe that Congress faltered by tying up with the Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP, a party accused of stalling Telangana’s formation. Instead of spurring the Congress, the alliance revived the “Telangana sentiment” and drove voters towards TRS.
To understand KCR’s popularity, one has only to browse social media. On Monday, KCR’s son, K T Rama Rao, had tweeted, “One PM, one wannabe PM, 11 Union ministers and many more campaigned against TRS. In the end, one man who’s always used to odds being stacked against him, Shri KCR Garu, shall emerge victorious tomorrow.” Another meme going viral shows KCR speeding ahead in a pink car (TRS symbol) while Naidu is way behind riding a onewheel bicycle held up by Congress leaders and others.
After dissolving assembly prematurely on September 6, KCR had called himself “Mogodu” (He-man). At the time it had seemed like a brazen boast, but the strategy worked. His numerous populist schemes also touched many lives, especially in Telangana’s rural belt.
“KCR was the candidate in all constituencies. He was the face of the party. KCR’s hard work brought the party back to power,” said TRS MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha, KCR’s daughter.
Interestingly, KCR had given tickets to as many as 105 candidates who had fought the 2014 elections as well. He did not change sitting MLAs despite intelligence reports pointing out that 30 of them were facing anti-incumbency.
Not surprisingly, KCR won Gajwel by more than 50,000 votes. His nephew, T Harish Rao, won Sidipet by more than 1.2 lakh votes while KTR, too, won Sircilla by a huge margin. The likes of PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah had accused KCR of concentrating power in the family. The strategy appears to have failed badly.
The decimation of the Congress alliance can be gauged from the fact that the four parties won only 21 seats between themselves—19 to the Congress (two less than in 2014) and two to TDP.
Even Congress’s big guns, including chief ministerial candidates A Revanth Reddy, D K Aruna, Jeevan Reddy and K Jana Reddy, could not hold on to their seats.
Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM, which had supported TRS in the election, was the only party of some reckoning to win back the seven seats it had won in 2014. TDP has been wiped out even from Greater Hyderabad where voters with origins in Andhra Pradesh were expected to back it. Even BJP was reduced from five seats to one in the assembly with only hardcore Hindutva leader Raja Singh winning from Goshamahal.
A former MLC and political analyst, Professor K Nageshwar, told TOI, “A positive vote for KCR overwhelmed the limited and sporadic discontent. The hardcore Telangana voter who had got alienated in the past four and a half years returned to the TRS fold due to the Naidu factor. Consolidation of the core Telangana vote helped.”
Political analyst M E V Prasad Reddy told TOI, “KCR could strike a chord in rural areas with his schemes. Long neglected villages were taken care of. Congress was disconnected from the masses due to its ageing leadership. Tying up with Naidu was a big blunder. People of Telangana didn’t like it.”
Muslim vote favoured TRS
Syed Akbar, Swing in Muslim vote favoured TRS, December 12, 2018: The Times of India
An en masse swing of the Muslim vote made all the difference for the ruling TRS if poll-related data is any indication.
The shift in the Muslim vote was also facilitated by the decision of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) to contest in only eight seats, and indirectly campaign for the ruling TRS in the other 111assembly segments.
Moreover, the inimitable style of campaigning by TRS president and CM K Chandrasekhar Rao in Muslim-dominated segments also worked in favour of the party.
Apart from increasing the monthly honorarium paid to imams and muezzins in mosques, KCR endeared himself to the principal minority community by addressing them in Urdu, often explaining the importance of Muslim beliefs, particularly the Imam-e-Zamin (protector band worn on arm).
