Telangana crowns Cong

Hyderabad: The Congress has pulled the brakes on car ride by the BRS shattering the latter’s dreams of hitting a hat-trick in Telangana. It has been a super victory for the Congress with 65 seats. The pink party emerged as the main Opposition with 39 MLAs, indicating that the new Assembly will see a vibrant session.

This win in Karnataka and Telangana would further concrete Congress' presence in the South. Factors such as anti-incumbency, voter fatigue, and dissatisfaction among the youth contributed mainly to the poor showing of the BRS in Telangana. The BRS hit a roadblock despite the towering image of its president K Chandrashekar Rao, being the regional party with highest number of party workers and extensive grassroots network.

The Congress swept North and South Telangana districts. The BRS retained its hold in the Greater Hyderabad limits and part of Medak.

The inaccessibility of its leaders, the allegation of family rule in the state, failure to deliver promises like double bedroom houses, not doling out unemployment relief, as well as the delayed implementation of farmers’ loan waivers and the leak of recruitment test question papers worked against the ruling party.

Reacting to the results in Telangana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in New Delhi that deceiving the youth had led to the fall of the BRS government.

The BJP too increased its strength to eight MLAs, besides party candidate K Venkata Ramana Reddy emerging as the giantkiller by defeating the incumbent CM KCR and probable Congress CM candidate Revanth Reddy in Kamareddy.

Another reason for BRS losing power was party’s decision not to change the MLAs against whom there was strong anti-incumbency factor. On the other hand, the BJP, despite its flip flops, won eight seats and improved its number.

The BRS changed sitting MLAs in six places and all of them won the election. KTR’s friend B Johnson Naik from Khanapur lost to the Congress with a small margin.