Congress will have to play the second fiddle in Seemandhra and Telengana

Hyderabad: Regional parties like the Telangana Rashtra Samiti in Telangana and the Telugu Desam and the YSR Congress in Seema-ndhra will play a key role in both state and national politics this time.

Exit polls indicate that the Congress, which has dominated Andhra Pradesh for the last 10 years, will be punished in the Seemandhra region for allowing the bifurcation of the state.

Going by the results in the local body polls announced earlier this week, a major chunk of the Congress’ traditional votes has gone to the TD in Seemandhra, and not to the YSR Congress as was expected.

The Congress, which boasted that it had fulfilled the desire of 40 million people of Telangana, can hope that it will get a sizeable number of votes and seats in Telangana, though it is by no means certain that it will trounce the TRS, which also claims credit for the separate state.
The likely scenario in both states is the return of regional parties, as in 1983-89, and 1994-2004.