BJP gains from TRS-Congress war

Hyderabad: Efforts by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti to weaken the main opposition Congress has allowed the BJP to emerge as a strong alternative in Telangana state. Should the BJP grow in Telangana state, the TRS will be in trouble as the BJP’s organisational structure makes it a formidable opponent.

After the Lok Sabha elections the BJP national leadership has announced that their next target after West Bengal is Telangana state from where it has won four seats. In the Assembly elections held four months ago the BJP had won just one seat. The Congress won three Lok Sabha seats last month, and 19 Assembly seats in December last year.

Going by the votes polled in the Assembly elections in December, the TRS was ahead in 14 Lok Sabha constituencies out of 16. In Mahbubabad the vote difference between the TRS and the Congress was about 5,000.

Despite this, the TRS won only nine seats in the Lok Sabha elections held six months later. Compared to the Assembly elections the TRS lead in the Assembly segments had reduced and the BJP and the Congress had gained.

In the Assembly elections the TRS won 88 seats. Going by the votes received by the TRS in individual Assembly segments during the Lok Sabha polls, the ruling party was ahead in 71 seats.

That means that in the five-month gap between the Assembly election and the Lok Sabha polls, the TRS majority has come down to 71 Assembly constituencies from 88.

The BJP had won only one seat in the Assembly elections but in the Lok Sabha polls it got a majority in 21 Assembly segments. The Congress won 19 seats in the December elections but in the Lok Sabha elections it led in 21 Assembly segments.

TRS leaders said that the results were the outcome of national dominating the Lok Sabha elections, and the TRS won only nine seats. State issues are thought to be paramount in the Assembly elections.

As things stand now, there is little chance of the Congress gaining strength in the state or at the Centre where it has lost twice consecutively while the BJP has won twice at the Centre which will help strengthen its position in Telangana state.

The TRS concentrated on weakening the Congress by encouraging defections of its MLAs and admitting important leaders into the party. A senior politician said that if the Congress had been strong, the BJP would not have won four Lok Sabha seats. He said the defections of Congress MLAs weakened the party and strengthened the BJP.

People who are against the TRS usually vote for the Congress. But they were apprehensive that once elected the MLAs would defect to the TRS and chose the BJP instead. The BJP has the advantage when it comes to organisation and has committed hardcore workers. The Congress has no such workers; most of them can be lured away easily by other political parties.