Congress 'hand' stops BRS 'car' in Telangana

Hyderabad: The Congress 'hand' has stopped Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) 'car' in Telangana as the grand old party has comfortably reached the majority mark as per the latest trends of the Election Commission of India.

The Congress is leading on 61 seats while the BRS on 36 and the BJP leading on 10, as per ECI.

Telangana Congress President, Anumula Revanth Reddy is leading from the Kamareddy seat leaving CM KCR trailing behind.

Revanth Reddy is MP in the Lok Sabha from INC representing Malkajgiri Constituency. Earlier, He was a two-time MLA in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly from TDP in 2009 and 2014 and in the Telangana Assembly between 2014 and 2018 representing Kodangal Constituency.

He left TDP and joined Congress in 2017.

In June 2021, he was appointed as president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee replacing N. Uttam Kumar Reddy.

Both Congress candidate Konda Surekha and Naini Rajender Reddy are leading from Warangal East and West seats.

Telangana CM KCR is leading from the Gajwel seat. Since the formation of the State in the year 2014, BRS has been holding power with KCR as its chief minister.

Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao (KTR) is leading from Sircilla, which is considered one of the most important seats. KTR fought from the same seat in the 2018 elections and won.

Payal Shanker from BJP is leading on the Adilabad seat while Dhanpal Suryanarayana leading from Nizamabad (Urban).

Jaffar Hussain from AIMIM is leading on the Yakutpura seat.

Celebrations were seen outside the Congress office in Hyderabad over the party crossing the halfway mark comfortably. The party cadre chanted "Bye bye KCR".

The Telangana election results will be important for the Congress as it heads into the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. A win in Karnataka and Telangana would further concrete its presence in the South.

The Congress party, which is now in reckoning, was completely written off just six months ago. Several factors could have contributed to the Congress's upturn: Perceived anti-incumbency at the constituency level against BRS MLAs; energy infused by the Karnataka victory in the party leaders and cadres; the BJP's decline following the removal of Bandi Sanjay as the Telangana unit chief; and the perception that the BRS and AIMIM are in cahoots with the BJP.

Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury said that Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) leaders are in touch with the grand old party.

On being asked if BRS leaders are in touch with the Congress party, Renuka Chowdhury told ANI "Of course! Today's politics is like that. They are in touch with us. Sometimes they take away ours (MLAs), and sometimes theirs come here."

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar who is in Telangana as an AICC observer on Sunday spoke about the possibility of MLA poaching and said that not even a single MLA or candidate will break.

TPCC Vice President Kiran Kumar Chamala also spoke on the MLA poaching issue in Telangana and said that the party's MLAs will not be provoked.

"It's not the trend what we see this morning, these are the waves and positive vibrations in Telangana. The 6 guarantees that Sonia Gandhi has promised to the people of Telangana have turned the tide towards us. Poaching is one of the main agenda of KCR. We have taken some measurements. But after seeing the trends, we don't think it is needed. At least we'll have 80-plus seats. Our President Revanth Reddy is also leading. Everything is under control and our MLAs will not be provoked," the TPCC Vice President said.

The fate of 2,290 candidates from 109 parties including the national and regional parties will be revealed as the counting proceeds. The contestants include 221 women and one transgender. A total of 103 legislators are re-contesting this time, most of them from the ruling BRS.

A clear picture of the result is likely to emerge by noon.

Telangana went to vote on November 30. In 2018, BRS (then Telangana Rashtra Samithi) won 88 of the 119 seats and had a 47.4 per cent vote share. The Congress came a distant second with 19 seats.