Hyderabad: Outgoing Telangana Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) has won in Gajwel, defeating his nearest rival, the BJP’s Eatala Rajender — KCR’s one-time confidant — by 45,031 votes.
KCR, was, however, defeated in Kamareddy, the second segment he contested from. He came second to the BJP’s Katipally Venkata Ramana Reddy by 6,741 votes, with Telangana Congress chief Revanth Reddy in third place.
KCR is the sitting MLA from Gajwel.
His son, BRS working president and state minister K.T. Rama Rao (KTR), won by 29,687 votes in neighbouring Sircilla. He had won the seat in 2018 as well.
KTR won Sircilla for the first time in 2009, with a wafer-thin majority of 171 votes. Telangana was then a part of Andhra Pradesh.
The CM’s nephew, health and finance minister Tanneeru Harish Rao, is leading by over 63,000 votes in his seat Siddipet (!6 of 20 counting rounds), formerly held by KCR as well.
In 2018, Harish won Siddipet with a whopping vote share of 118,699 votes.
KCR’s daughter, Telangana MLC and former Lok Sabha MP K. Kavitha, was not in the fray this time.
Winning these seats, with bigger victory margins, is seen to be crucial for KCR-KTR to retain their grip over the party.
While the BJP and the Congress, from Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi to local leaders, accuse the CM of family-centric corrupt rule in Telangana, there has been some public resentment over development being concentrated in Hyderabad and “family constituencies”. This is considered one of the reasons for the debacle in the 2020 Dubbaka 2020 bypoll, where local residents complained about lack of proper infrastructure.
‘Elect me again’
The KCR family did not seem to have taken their victory for granted in the run-up to the elections.
All three leaders — the top faces of BRS, who canvassed extensively for party candidates across the state — came back to their respective segments on the last campaign day to address their constituents.
At his rally in Gajwel, KCR recalled how the “voters offered me the platform to become the first CM of Telangana”.
“I am 70, served as CM for 10 years; seen it all. Elect me again, this time for Gajwel to reach newer heights in development,” KCR told the Praja Ashirwad Sabha audience.
KCR, a two-term CM, was seen as facing a strong anti-incumbency wave across the state, which is why he is believed to have picked a second seat as well.
Although the CM often visits his farmhouse at Erravelli near Gajwel, nearby villagers ThePrint spoke to complained that he never stopped or slowed his convoy for even a friendly wave at them.
“True, Gajwel has seen tremendous development. But the locals, party workers often feel orphaned as their MLA is not available. They are clueless about who to approach for new proposals like a water tank or a school building and such projects are delayed,” said Puli Raju, a political observer.
During his campaign this poll season, the CM addressed a meeting of Gajwel party workers, reportedly assuring them that he would be available to them one day a month from now on.
Sensing the resentment, the BJP fielded KCR’s one-time lieutenant and his former cabinet colleague Eatala Rajender in Gajwel. Rajender was expected to attract anti-incumbency votes and those from his Mudiraj community — categorised as a backward class in the state.
In textiles centre Siricilla, KTR, political observers said, was facing an uphill task.
A few days before the elections, the Congress released an audio call recording on social media platform X (previously Twitter), purportedly of KTR, where he appeared to be persuading local leaders to conduct an effective door-to-door campaign, while “flagging the buzz within the BRS circles of a likely decline in his majority in Sircilla this time”.
In the purported audio, KTR appeared to assure partymen of availability in Sircilla twice a week and easy accessibility.
“Fearing defeat, KTR dials party leaders in Sircilla,” the Telangana Congress wrote while sharing the audio on 22 November with the hashtag ‘#ByeByeKCR’.
Without a direct comment on the audio clip, KTR in an X post 24 November alerted the party cadre and social media activists. “There will be many false/deep fake videos & other forms of nonsensical propaganda over the next few days from ‘Scamgress’ scammers. Let us make sure no gullible voter falls into their trap. Jai Telangana,” KTR posted with ‘#TelanganaWithKCR’.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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