Telangana polls: Majority eluded Congress since 1983

Hyderabad: Despite its poor show in the previous elections, the Congress claims that it is confident to come to power in the ensuing assembly elections.  TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has claimed several times that the Congress would win 75 Assembly seats out of total 119 in the upcoming elections. But the party's history paints a different picture. 

After the 1983 launch of Telugu Desam, Congress could not could not touch the majority mark of 60 assembly seats in any of the assembly elections held in unified Andhra Pradesh or in the last one held after the formation of Telangana.  In the eight Assembly elections held between 1983 and 2014, the Telugu Desam and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi crossed the magic figure of 60 once each.

In 1994, the TD won 69 seats while the TRS won 63 seats in 2014. But congress never reached the 60 figure though it succeeded in forming government thrice.  The highest number of seats won by congress was 57 in 1989. In the upcoming Assembly elections, the Congress is under the hope that the proposed “grand alliance”” of Opposition parties, including TD and CPI, will succeed in dethroning the TRS.  Meanwhile, TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao has also expressed confidence that his party would win 100 seats. The TRS is fighting the Assembly elections alone.