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Less than six months ago, on 11 December 2018, the results for the Telangana Assembly elections were announced. K Chandrasekhar Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which had held power in India’s youngest state since its inception in 2014, swept the elections by winning 88 of the 119 seats in the Assembly.
In second place was the Congress with 19 seats, far behind the TRS’ dominating tally of 88. Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) managed to win a couple of seats. And note this as you read ahead, the BJP won only one Assembly seat. This was the last month of 2018.
Then, all 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Telangana voted in the first phase of the general election on 11 April 2019, barely four months after having voted in the Assembly polls.
In case you’re wondering why the BJP’s performance in the Lok Sabha polls in Telangana is a surprise, here’s why.
In the Lok Sabha constituency of Nizamabad, the sitting TRS MP was KCR’s daughter K Kavitha. The BJP fielded Arvind Dharmapuri, son of former TRS leader D Srinivas, from the seat. Srinivas had left the TRS after being accused by Kavitha of indulging in “anti-party activities”.
Kavitha also had the added worry of the farmers in Nizamabad protesting against her for failing to deliver on certain promises. Many of the farmers even contested the election against her as an act of protest.
Yet, despite those concerns, Kavitha was expected to comfortably retain her seat, especially given that the TRS has been the overwhelmingly dominant party in the state, as witnessed in the Assembly polls in December. Since the Assembly election, as many as 10 out of the 19 Congress MLAs jumped ship and joined the TRS in the months preceding the Lok Sabha polls. This only further established the dominance of the TRS in Telangana currently.
In addition to Nizamabad, the BJP is also set to win in Adilabad, Karimnagar and Secunderabad, making it quite a memorable performance for the saffron party in one of the few states in which it has a limited presence.
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