TRS trumps detractors again
Except for a few setbacks, the party has been dominating all the elections since State formation
Hyderabad: Decimating the Opposition parties, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) recorded yet another impressive one-sided victory in the biennial elections to 12 MLC seats. The ruling party’s emphatic win is being viewed as a mid-term popularity test for all the political parties in the State, as these 12 MLC seats cover nine of 10 erstwhile districts.
Except for a couple of setbacks, the TRS has been dominating all the elections – from Assembly to Parliament, rural local bodies to urban local bodies as well as MLC polls over the last seven years since the State formation. The latest win by TRS had only trumped the Opposition parties as well as the detractors who keep claiming that the party would be history after the next Assembly elections.
After winning two Assembly seats during the bypolls over last one year, Opposition parties claimed that it was beginning of the end of TRS regime in the State, but the increasing vote percentage as well as repeated wins of the party in all other elections, is proving otherwise.
The TRS increased its presence in the Assembly from 63 to 88 during its second term in 2018, even as its vote percentage has increased from 34.04 per cent in 2014 to 46.9 per cent in 2018. Several Opposition MLAs got attracted to the developmental activities of the TRS government and merged their Legislative parties in the TRS Legislative Party, taking the overall strength of TRS in the Assembly to 103 seats.
The party swept all 12 MLC seats on Tuesday, ousting the BJP from the Telangana State Legislative Council and confining the Congress to just one seat. Of the total 40 seats in the Legislative Council, the TRS is currently leading with highest number of 34 members. While there are two members each from AIMIM and PRTU, the Congress has one MLC from Graduates constituency and another independent MLC under Teachers constituency.
The party leaders term that the repeated victories of TRS in various elections, was nothing but people’s acknowledgement of the able administration of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao as well as successful implementation of various welfare and development programmes in the State. The poll results are proving that the Chief Minister’s charisma is intact and there was no one of his stature in the Opposition parties.
It may be remembered that the TRS won 99 of 150 seats in GHMC elections with 66 per cent of vote share in 2016 elections. In 2020, the party has also secured 112 of 120 municipalities with 44 per cent of vote share and all 10 municipal corporations with 36.7 per cent of vote share. In gram panchayat elections held in 2019, the TRS bagged 2,973 of 4,470 panchayats. The party has strengthened its presence by enhancing its members in Zilla Parishads from 191 in 2014 to 449 in 2019 and in Mandal Parishads from 1,860 in 2014 to 3,571 in 2019.
‘BJP, Congress voters supported TRS MLC candidates’
Karimnagar: Voters of both opposition parties including BJP and Congress cast their votes to TRS candidates for Karimnagar Local Authorities Constituency elections. It was revealed in the results announced on Tuesday.
Though the party has sufficient votes to win two MLC seats which fell vacant with the completion of the tenure of Naradasu Laxman Rao and T Bhanu Prasad Rao, party aspirants got 78 additional votes. Party candidates got 1,064 votes as against its original votes of 986.
Earlier, it was considered that 450 votes was a magic figure to win each MLC seat since 1,320 votes were polled as against 1,324 votes. Since it was possible to win both the seats with first priority votes if 986 votes were polled equally between two candidates, the TRS leadership educated its voters to cast first priority votes to its candidates equally.
As 17 votes were found invalid in the counting, the magic figure declined to 435 votes. While T Bhanu Prasad Rao got 585 votes, L Ramana secured 479 votes.
If TRS’s 986 votes were divided equally, each candidate has to get 493 votes. However, Bhanu Prasad Rao got 92 additional votes. Meanwhile, Lamana got 14 less votes.
Independent candidate S Ravinder Singh, who was indirectly supported by BJP and Congress parties, got 232 votes. Though both the parties have 324 votes, all of the opposition parties’ voters had not cast their votes for Ravinder Singh.
According to TRS circles, 92 additional votes polled to Bhanu Prasad Rao belonged to opposition parties. A majority of the opposition parties’ voters exercised their votes for TRS candidates.
Attracted by the developmental and welfare schemes introduced by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, voters of opposition parties cast their votes to ruling party candidates, they opined.
Also read:
TRS wins all MLC seats under LACs
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