GHMC poll results: Seemandhra voters choose TRS

Hyderabad: With its famous victory, the TRS demolished pre-poll expectations and analysis that it would find it difficult to win municipal divisions dominated by Seemandhra voters. Divisions such as LB Nagar, AS Rao Nagar, Tarnaka, Kukatpally, Kondapur, Chandanagar, Miyapur, Allwyn Colony, Ameerpet, Sanathnagar, Malkajgiri, Neredmet, Madhapur, Hayathnagar, Kapra, Meerpet, Nagole, Mansurabad, Vanasthalipuram, Hasthinapuram, Saroornagar, Moosarambagh, Santhoshnagar, Attapur, Vijayanagar Colony are known to have large number of voters from Seemandhra.

The TD-BJP combine was confident of securing these divisions, believing that the Seemandhra voters viewed the TRS as their enemy because it was responsible for the bifurcation of the state. The GHMC poll results showed how wrong they were. IT minister K.T. Rama Rao said, “This verdict proves beyond doubt that all people living in Hyderabad irrespective of region or state have utmost confidence that the TRS would not discriminate against anyone. The government has proved this during its 20-month rule.”

Naidu’s election plan goes awry
Friday’s GHMC results dealt a huge blow to the TDP-BJP combine. The alliance had performed superbly in the 2014 general elections by bagging 14 Assembly seats and two Lok Sabha seats in the GHMC limits, indicating that they were still a force to reckon with in GHMC even after the state’s bifurcation.

The TRS, which had traditionally been weak in the city since its inception in 2001, had to be satisfied with just two Assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat (Chevella) in 2014. Two years later, the scenario is completely different.

The TDP-BJP combine suffered a humiliating defeat, which they perhaps hadn’t anticipated even in their wildest dreams.

Both parties had banked on their MPs and MLAs in GHMC limits and were confident of securing a respectable number of seats in the GHMC elections. But shockingly, the two parties put together were confined to a single digit out of the 150 seats they had contested for.

Earlier, leaders of both parties were of the opinion that even in the worst scenario, they would easily bag 17 seats assuming that each of their MLAs and MPs would guarantee one seat. But all their calculation went awry with their tally not even getting into double digits. Meanwhile, the ruling TRS made history by scoring a century.

Though the TDP had lost four of its MLAs in the GHMC limits to the TRS due to defections, the BJP MLAs had stayed put. In 2014, the TDP had won nine MLA seats – Sanathnagar, Jubilee Hills, Serilingampally, Rajendranagar, Maheshwaram, Secunderabad Cantonment, LB Nagar, Kukatpally and Quthbullapur — while BJP had won five — Goshamahal, Khairatabad, Musheerabad, Amberpet and Uppal.

However, the TDP MLAs from Sanathnagar, Maheshwaram, Kukatpally and Secunderabad Cantonment later defected to the TRS. BJP, meanwhile, only faced dissent from Goshamal MLA Mr T. Raja Singh, but there were no defections. The TRS had only won Secunderabad and Malkajgiri MLA seats in 2014.

In the GHMC polls, the TDP-BJP leaders had banked on the “Seemandhra settlers” – around 16 lakh out of the 70 lakh voters in GHMC – to vote for them as they presumably viewed the TRS as their “enemy” given that TRS leaders had abused Seemandhra people during the Telangana statehood agitation days and for taking away Hyderabad. But all their expectations and calculations were proved wrong.