TRS trounces rivals in all six MLC seats

HYDERABAD: The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) made a clean sweep in the MLC elections under local bodies’ quota by bagging all six seats with a clear majority, the results of which were declared on Tuesday. The polling was held on December 10 and the counting of votes was done on Tuesday.

TRS candidates T Bhanuprasad Rao and L. Ramana from Karimnagar, Vanteru Yadava Reddy from Medak, Tata Madhu from Khammam, M.C. Kotireddy from Nalgonda and Dande Vittal from Adilabad trounced their nearest rivals with a handsome majority.

The TRS leadership's 'camp strategy' paid off as there was no major cross-voting by TRS’ local bodies’ representatives in the MLC polls barring Khammam. Surprisingly, there was cross-voting by Opposition members from the Congress, the BJP and others in favour of TRS in Karimnagar.

The Karimnagar result came as a setback for the BJP and the Congress as both the parties reportedly backed independent candidate Ravinder Singh, who quit the TRS and contested the election. A total of 219 members from the Congress, 105 from the BJP and 66 others cross-voted in favour of the TRS. After defeating the TRS in the recent Huzurabad Assembly bypoll, the BJP leaders and its MLA Etala Rajender made all efforts to ensure victory of Ravinder Singh but shockingly the BJP and even the Congress members voted for TRS. However, several of them who resorted to cross-voting had joined the TRS after local bodies’ elections in 2019.

The TRS leadership laid more emphasis on Karimnagar where its senior leader and former mayor of Karimnagar municipal corporation Ravinder Singh contested as independent after quitting the TRS. The TRS leadership suspected the backing of BJP MLA Etala Rajender to Ravinder Singh.

Minister Gangula Kamalakar, who was the party's in-charge for MLC polls, said the TRS had a strength of 986 members in local bodies in Karimnagar district but two TRS candidates in Karimnagar together polled 1,063 seats indicating cross-voting by Opposition Congress, the BJP and other members in favour of TRS. The Opposition parties have a total strength of 324 members in Karimnagar but they were polled just 234 votes, he added.

Although the TRS won Khammam seat, it suffered a jolt as its 130 members in local bodies resorted to cross-voting in favour of rival candidates. Seven TRS members in Medak local bodies were also found to have resorted to cross-voting in favour of the Congress candidate.

Ministers and party MLAs in respective districts who organised 'camps' for TRS local bodies representatives in other states succeeded in their task of preventing horse-trading by rival candidates.

The TRS faced Congress candidates in Medak and Khammam seats and independent candidates in Adilabad, Karimnagar and Nalgonda seats.
While Bhanuprasad Rao and Ramana in Karimnagar got 584 and 479 votes respectively, Yadava Reddy in Medak received 762 votes. M.C. Kotireddy in Nalgonda secured 917 votes and Madhu registered 480 votes in Khammam. Dande Vittal received 740 votes in Adilabad.

Earlier, TRS candidates Kalvakuntla Kavitha from Nizamabad, Patnam Mahender Reddy and Shambhipur Raju from Rangareddy, Pochampally Srinivas Reddy from Warangal, Kuchukulla Damodar Reddy and Kasireddy Narayana Reddy from Mahbubnagar were elected unanimously.

In all, there were 5,326 voters, of whom 3,223 were MPTCs, 325 ZPTCs, 1,544 councillors and 169 corporators. Of them, over 90 per cent belong to the TRS.
Soon after the filing of nominations ended, the ministers and TRS MLAs in respective districts shifted their local bodies members to camps in Goa, Bengaluru, Mysure etc to prevent horse trading by rival candidates.

They were confined in camps for over 10 days before polling and were brought straight to polling booths from camps on the day of polling of December 10. The ministers and MLAs ensured that all their members cast votes in favour of the party's candidates.