MLC results a slap in the face of TRS: Congress

Hyderabad: The Congress on Wednesday said that the results of MLC elections in the State is like a slap in the face of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) as the results exposed its vulnerability.

Addressing the media, All India Congress Committee (AICC) Spokesperson Dasoju Sravan said that the victory of Congress-backed candidates in the MLC elections is like a slap in the face of arrogant TRS. TPCC treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy said that though the people were against them, the ruling party has won the Assembly elections by manipulating the EVMs.

Sravan said that the MLC election results reflect the mood of Telangana which is building up against the ruling TRS. He said that the fall of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's government was near and there would be some major developments in the next few days. He said that the same mood would continue in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections with Congress party winning majority of the seats. " The TRS has been spending hundreds of crores to win the Lok Sabha election. But the MLC polls have set the mood and TRS was bound to face a humiliating defeat," he said.

He said that the jobless graduates, employees and teachers have shattered the arrogance of the TRS by voting in favour of the Congress-backed candidates in all three seats of teachers and graduate constituencies. Congratulating the three newly elected MLCs, Sravan said their victory became possible only due to the use of ballot papers.

He said the results also vindicated the Congress party's contention that EVMs were tampered or manipulated in the last Assembly elections. He said people had voted against TRS, but the EVMs were manipulated to turn those results against the opposition parties. He requested the Election Commission of India to learn some lessons from the MLC polls and ensure 100 per cent counting of VVPATs in the Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress leader said that the votes received through Postal Ballots have always matched with the final results in any elections. For instance, he said in 2014 Assembly elections, TRS got 73 per cent Postal Ballots and it won 65 seats. With 16 per cent votes, Congress had won on 22 seats while TDP got 12 per cent votes through Postal Ballots and won 15 seats. However, in 2018 elections, TRS got just 28 per cent votes, but it won 88 per cent seats while the Congress party won 19 seats despite getting 73 per cent of postal ballot votes.

Narayana Reddy appealed to Maheshwaram MLA P Sabitha Indira Reddy and other Congress MLAs who defected to TRS to return to party fold in view of the results of the MLC polls."The mood of people of Telangana was already against the TRS in Assembly elections. However, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao manipulated EVMs and indulged in other irregularities to win the polls. The MLC elections, which were held on ballot paper, have proved that it was the Congress, and not the TRS, for whom people have voted in last elections and wants to vote in future.

Therefore, the Congress party is bound to win a majority of seats in forthcoming Lok Sabha elections," he said.Gudur Narayana Reddy said teachers, employees and graduates have voted against the TRS-backed candidates in MLC constituencies spread across 42 Assembly segments covering seven erstwhile undivided districts of Telangana. Congress leader T Jeevan Reddy has won from a graduate constituency which includes Sircilla (represented by KTR) and Nizamabad (represented by K Kavitha) with a majority of over 39,000 votes.