Telangana Rashtra Samithi confident of scoring century

Hyderabad: Would it be possible for the Congress party to come to power in Telangana, or for the Telangana Rashtra Samithi to regain power with their party chief’s claim of hitting a century in the assembly elections next month?

Though there is some anger and a certain amount of anti-incumbency sentiment, there is no discernible anti-TRS wave in the state. Nor is there evidence of a strong wave in favour of the Congress.

The TRS is contesting alone in all 119 seats, whereas the Congress has allied with the Telugu Desam, Communist Party of India and Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) led by Professor Kodandaram. This grand alliance or Mahakutami is contesting 119 seats. The Congress will field 95 candidates, the Telugu Desam, 14, the TJS, eight, and the CPI three.

Political analysts say that if the Congress wants to come to power it has to cross 65 seats on its own; it would not depend on either the TJS or the TD. The TJS can at the most make a dent in the TRS vote bank. 

The CPI had won only one seat in the 2014 elections and the TD had won 15 seats, including Sanathnagar, Jubilee Hills, LB Nagar, Qutubullapur, Ibrahimpatnam, Rajendranagar, Serilingampally and Maheswaram assembly segments, where people from Andhra live. This time it may not get as many seats going by the response to the GHMC elections which the TRS won overwhelmingly.

The TRS had won only 63 seats out of 119 seats in the state in the 2014 elections, though the pro-Telangana sentiment was strong then. TRS leaders had admitted that they could not win seats in Greater Hyderabad due to apprehensions in the minds of Andhra people about the TRS.

But things have changed. In the elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation in 2016, Andhra people had voted for the TRS. Analysts say that the TD could win three or four seats this time that too mainly within GHMC limits. In a better case scenario, it may get seven or eight seats. It will not be easy for the Congress to win athe 65 seats it needs to keep the TRS from regaining power.

TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao has proclaimed from the beginning that his party will win more than 100 seats. Though the TRS is contesting 119 seats, it has to minus the seven seats of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) due to  their political record after the delimitation of Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in the year 2008.

In the 2009 and 2014 elections the MIM won from Chandrayanagutta, Karwan, Nampally, Bahadurpura, Malakpet, Charminar and Yakutpura segments. If the MIM chief’s claim that this can be repeated turns into reality, the fight will be between the TRS and Congress-led Mahakutami for the 111 seats. 

But chances of the BJP regaining its five seats cannot be ruled out, and the CPI and CPM may also retain one seat each. Given these circumstances, it would be difficult for the TRS to bag 100 seats.