Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has another southern performance to be proud of: Besides establishing a sweeping lead in Karnataka in general elections 2019, it seems to have also pulled off a strong performance in India’s youngest state, Telangana.
According to trends as of 2 pm, the BJP was leading in four of Telangana’s 17 seats — up by three seats over its tally of 2014. The state’s ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi of K. Chandrashekar Rao, which had pulled off a near-sweep in last year’s assembly election, was leading in nine seats, two notches below its 2014 tally.
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KCR, who had been leading efforts to forge a non-BJP, non-Congress federal front, was said to have been eyeing a tally of at least 16. The Congress, too, looks likely to up its 2014 tally of two by one seat.
Asaduddin Owaisi of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), meanwhile, seemed set to retain his fortress Hyderabad, leading with a margin of nearly 85,000.
Strong TRS hands trailing to BJP
With the aim of playing a key role at the Centre, KCR had already prepared the groundwork in Telangana by making his son K.T. Rama Rao the working president of the party. It was believed that this was aimed at letting Rao succeed KCR as Chief Minister when he moved to Delhi as minister.
But the two national parties, the BJP and the Congress, seem to have made inroads into Telangana, sending a signal to the TRS that they possibly took their voters for granted.
Among the prominent candidates, KCR’s daughter K. Kavitha was trailing in Nizamabad, the seat she won in 2014, behind Arvind Dharmapuri of the BJP.
The Nizamabad constituency gained attention nationally when 175 turmeric farmers decided to contest against Kavitha this election as a mark of protest against what they see as the failure of the TRS government to establish a Turmeric Board in the state.
The TRS had initially cosied up to the BJP, and it was believed that the party would support the NDA if they formed the government at the Centre. However, when the farmers filed nominations against his daughter Kavitha, KCR blamed the BJP for instigating them.
KCR’s close aide B. Vinod Kumar, too, seems to be losing the battle from Karimnagar, which he won in 2014, again to a BJP candidate, Bandi Sanjay Kumar.
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