New Delhi: The Lok Sabha polls in Telangana sprung up a surprise, with the ruling-Telangana Rashtra Samithi yielding space to both the Congress and the BJP. The party won 11 of the state’s 17 seats in 2014 and was expected to better its tally, if not hold, with most exit polls giving it between 13 and 15 seats. However, the party won just nine seats. The BJP and Congress posted gains, with the former winning four and the latter three.
The BJP retained the Secunderabad seat, which it won in 2014, and was able to expand in the north. Chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s (KCR) daughter K. Kavitha lost the the BJP’s Arvind Dharmapuri in Nizamabad. Arvind is the son of D. Srinivas, who quit the TRS after he was accused of “anti-party activities” by Kavitha. The BJP also won the Adilabad and Karimnagar seats, which have traditionally been strongholds of the TRS.
The Congress gained in the south of the state, and snatched the Bhongir seat away from the TRS, while retaining the Nalgonda constituency. The TRS and the Congress were locked in a close battle in Malkajgiri, with the Congress’s A. Revanth Reddy emerging victorious.
In Hyderabad, the All India Muslim-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi won decisively again.
In the state’s recently concluded assembly elections of December 2018, the TRS won a landslide victory. It secured more than 90 seats, leading many to believe that the same results will be replicated in the Lok Sabha elections. However, this has not proved to be the case.
Surprisingly, all the three major parties saw a surge in their vote shares. This can be partly explained by the fact that the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) exited the stage and chose to focus only on Andhra Pradesh, where assembly and Lok Sabha elections were held simultaneously. These two parties had close to 18% of the vote share in 2014. Their vote share has been redistributed among the TRS, BJP and the Congress.
The BJP seems to have benefitted the most, almost doubling its share. In 2014, the party had 10.5% of the vote. This time around, it stood at 19.5%. However, one needs to remember that the BJP fought the 2014 elections in an alliance with the TDP, so its 2014 vote share may not be a true reflection of its popularity then. It also contested just eight of the state’s 17 seats five years ago.
The Congress’s vote share has also increased, edging close to the 30% mark. Despite having a significantly higher vote share than the BJP, the Congress’s tally was one fewer than the former. The ruling TRS also increased its vote share, crossing the 40% mark. However, it did not translate into an increase in seats, with the party in fact dropping two of its seats.