A difference of nearly eight per cent votes put paid to the hopes of the Congress in the elections in Telangana region.
While Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) swept the Assembly polls with 34.15 per cent of votes, winning 63 Assembly seats, the Congress could manage to get only 25.97 per cent of votes and won 21 Assembly seats.
The TDP-BJP alliance on the other hand won 20 Assembly seats with 22.08 per cent percent votes almost coming at par with the Congress.
The YSR Congress Party could not find any space for itself except Khammam district bordering Andhra where it won the lok Sabha seat.
District-wise analysis showed that the TRS’ best performance was in the north Telangana districts of Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Warangal, Adilabad and Medak. The party also performed well in southern Telangana districts of Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda, where it already had its base.
Its worst performance was in Khammam (only 9 per cent votes) Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts (18.63 per cent and 34.6 per cent votes respectively). Karimnagar turned out to be the TRS’ fortress with whopping 48 per cent of votes. It was followed by TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao’s home district Medak with 47.22 per cent.
While the party managed to secure a clear majority in 119-member Assembly, it also exposed party’s organisational weaknesses in many parts of the State. But for the strong anti-incumbency against the Congress, it would have been difficult for the party to come out as a winner.
In the lok Sabha elections, the party polled slightly more votes at 34.67 per cent followed by24.48 per cent for the Congress and 22.80 per cent for the TDP-BJP.
TRS won 11 of the 17 Assembly seats, followed by two seats by the Congress - Nalgonda and Nagarkurnool. TRS, BJP, MIM and YSRCP bagged one lok Sabha seat each.
It was obvious that the TDP continued to hold a sway over the areas which had significant population of Seemandhra settlers like Greater Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Khammam district. But the BJP could not get a correct measure of its strength and influence as it had to fight as a junior partner of the TDP and had contested only 45 Assembly and eight lok Sabha seats winning five Assembly seats and one lok Sabha seat.
The TRS also emerged a favourite of the weaker sections -- including the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the Muslim minority -- securing most of their votes.
The Congress polled more votes than the TRS only in Nalgonda district. The Congress, which had alliance with the CPI, polled 33.12 per cent votes against the TRS’ 30.56 per cent in this erstwhile fortress of the left parties.
The best performance of the TDP-BJP alliance was in Hyderabad, where it polled 35.28 per cent followed by 35.25 per cent in Khammam.
Why the Congress met its waterloo in Telangana despite carving out the new StateIJ lack of a strong and charismatic leader in the State Congress to carry the message to the people and rally around the party cadre and dilly-dallying by the party High Command in taking a decision on the division in the last minute turned out to be the biggest drawbacks in the grand old party’s game plan for the State. State Congress chief Ponnala lakshmaiah, a backward class leader without much following across the State, failed so badly that he lost his own Assembly seat.
On the contrary in KCR, the TRS had a charismatic and energetic figure with great communication skill and immense popularity. Even the TDP-BJP alliance also benefited to a great extent from the personal appeal of N Chandrababu Naidu and Narendra Modi.