Telangana: Congress, BJP shares spoils; Owaisi retains Hyderabad
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi maintained his hold over Hyderabad.
Hyderabad: In a closely contested battle in Telangana, the Congress and the BJP secured eight seats each in the Lok Sabha elections from the total of 17 Parliamentary constituencies in the State.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi maintained his hold over Hyderabad, while the BRS did not win a single seat and was confined to the third position in at least 14 parliamentary constituencies.
Also Read
Telangana saw a 65.67 per cent voter turnout from its 3.32 crore electorate during the May 13 polling, as part of the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha polls. This marked an increase of 2.83 per cent compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when the BRS secured 9 seats, the BJP 4, Congress 3, and AIMIM 1. In all, 525 candidates competed in 17 Parliamentary constituencies.
The counting of 2.17 lakh postal ballots commenced at 8 am and was completed within the first 30 minutes, followed by the counting of votes from EVMs.
The initial trends started trickling in from 10 am, indicating a tough fight. Nizamabad and Nalgonda were among the first constituencies to announce the results. Congress candidate K Raghuveer Reddy from Nalgonda constituency registered one of the largest majorities in the country with 5.59 lakh votes by defeating BJP candidate S Saidi Reddy.
The second highest majority in Telangana was recorded by Ramasahayam Raghuram Reddy of the Congress in Khammam with 4.67 lakh votes against BRS candidate Nama Nageswara Rao. Other Congress winners include Dr Mallu Ravi (Nagarkurnool), Kadiyam Kavya (Warangal), P Balram Naik (Mahabubabad), Suresh Kumar Shetkar (Zahirabad), and Gaddam Vamsi Krishna (Peddapalli). Making big inroads into Telangana, the BJP won eight seats. Malkajgiri candidate Eatala Rajender secured a majority of 3.87 lakh votes against Congress candidate P Suneetha Mahender Reddy.
BJP candidate Bandi Sanjay Kumar from Karimnagar recorded the second-highest majority for the party with 2.25 lakh votes against Velchala Rajender Rao of the Congress. Other BJP candidates who won the elections were G Kishan Reddy (Secunderabad), DK Aruna (Mahbubnagar), Godam Nagesh (Adilabad), M Raghunandan Rao (Medak), K Vishweshwar Reddy (Chevella) and Arvind Dharmapuri in Nizamabad. In Hyderabad, Owaisi again proved his stronghold on the party bastion.
Though the BJP made strong claims to wipe him out by winning the seat and grabbed nationwide attention, the party candidate, Madhavi Latha was confined to 3.2 lakh votes. Owaisi scored 6.59 lakh votes and secured a majority of 3.38 lakh.
In the 2019 elections, the TRS (now BRS) came out on top with a vote share of 41.71 per cent. The BJP got a vote share of 19.65 per cent, followed by the Congress which netted 29.79 per cent of the votes. AIMIM secured its Hyderabad seat with a vote share of 2.8 per cent. However, Congress emerged on the top spot this time securing 40.1 per cent vote share.
The BJP came second with a vote share of 35.06, registering a staggering increase. The BRS bagged only 16.69 per cent, while the AIMIM increased its vote share marginally to 3.03 per cent. NOTA (None of the Above) polled 0.47 per cent votes.
While the results saw the BJP gaining a foothold in Telangana with eight parliamentary constituencies apart from its recent score of eight MLAs, the same will ring alarm bells for the Congress despite winning eight seats, the party lost Malkajgiri, which was earlier represented by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and the Mahabubnagar seat as well, which is Revanth Reddy’s home district, indicating a tough road ahead for him.
As for the BRS, the Lok Sabha elections turned out to be the most disappointing performance for the party since its inception.
However, the party leadership exuded confidence to make course corrections and to ‘rise from the ashes like a Phoenix’.
