Ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti has further cemented its political supremacy by sweeping the elections in two major Municipal Corporations and one municipal council in the State for which the elections were held on Sunday last.
The party hoisted its pink flag on the Warangal and Khammam Municipal Corporations and Achampeta Municiplaity in Mehbubnagar district and wiped out the entire opposition. In Achampet it was clean sweep by the TRS as it won all the 20 seats in the Municipality.
In Warangal, the heart of Telangana, the party won 44 of the 58 seats while Congress could win only four seats. While Independents won 9, the BJP was confined to two seats. Telugu Desam, once a formidable force in Warangal drew a blank as all the key leaders of the yellow party have joined the TRS. In the traditional red bastion Khammam, the TRS captured the Municipal Corporation by winning 34 of the 50 seats.
Congress was able to perform slightly better by winning 10 seats. CPI, CPIM and the YSRCP bagged two seats each. Telugu Desam failed to open its account as another of its stronghold crumbed before the onslaught of the TRS.
The win in Khammam was a big shot in the arm for the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao as the party had negligible presence in this district bordering Andhra Pradesh.
For the TRS this was the third consecutive victory in the elections in the state in the recent weeks. Earlier the party had won Warangal lok Sabha by election, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections and the Narayankhed assembly by election in Medak district. The party registered emphatic victories everywhere.
TDP which was reeling under the successive electoral defeats in Telangana suffered yet another jolt today with two more MlAs defecting to the TRS. They include A Gandhi and Maganti Gopinath, GHMC unit president of the TDP.
They have also signed the petition of ten other TDP MlAs to the Telangana Assembly Speaker Madhusudhana Chary seeking the merger of their group with the TRS.
TDP which had won 15 assembly seats in 2014 is now left with only three MlAs.