Hyderabad: The TRS put up a grand show in the city, winning 14 of the 17 non-MIM seats on offer. The last time round, it had won just three. The MIM retained the rest.
The Congress picked up two, Maheshwaram and LB Nagar, against a blank sheet the last time.
The BJP-TD alliance of 2014 had won 14 seats the last time round but suffered a washout this time. The BJP won just one seat, T. Raja Singh at Goshamahal, against five the last time and the TD could not win any against nine in 2014.
The TRS proved that its sweep of the GHMC elections in 2018 was no fluke. It had won 99 of the 150 wards then. This time, the TRS romped home in Jubilee Hills, Sanathnagar, Secunderabad, Secunderabad Cantonment, Quthbullapur, Kukatpally, Rajendranagar, Serilingampally, Musheerabad, Patancheru, Khairatabad, Amberpet, Malkajgiri and Uppal.
All the nine TD MLAs, when they defected, took their camp followers and network with them. Then, the campaign by leaders from Andhra Pradesh appeared to have pushed the voters towards the TRS.
The combination of the Congress with arch rival Telugu Desam also did not go down well with the voters. Because of the vote shift and defections.
The TD had previously won Jubilee Hills, Sanathnagar, Secunderabad Cantonment, Quthbullapur, Kukatpally, LB Nagar, Maheswaram, Rajendranagar and Serilingampally. It lost all of them this time.
The only TD candidate to make any difference at all was at Uppal where Mr Tulla Veerender Goud made made it a three-way contest with the TRS and the BJP, In the end, the TRS’ Subhash Reddy managed to secure 1,17,442 votes while Mr Goud candidate was second with 69,274 and sitting legislator N.V.S.S. Prabhakar came last with 26,798 votes.
The BJP, which went alone this time, had won the Musheerabad, Khairatabad, Amberpet, Goshamahal and Uppal constituencies. Of these, it retained only Goshamahal.
In a major setback to the party, senior party leaders including BJP state president Dr K. Laxman and two-time MLA from Amberpet G. Kishan Reddy lost to their TRS rivals. Senior BJP leader Chintala Ramachandra Reddy lost from Khairatabad while party MLC Ramchandra Rao was defeated in Malakpet.
Like Mr Prabhakar in Uppal, Dr Laxman too suffered a shock defeat at Musheerabad and in fact landed up third behind the TRS and the Prajakutami, The only saving grace for the party was Mr T. Raja Singh, who looked poised to retain the Goshamahal Assembly seat for a second term after a decent fight with Prem Singh Rathore of the TRS.
