Hyderabad: The high-profile campaigning by top leaders appeared to have helped a few BJP candidates and many from the Congress.
While top Congress leaders, led by the Gandhis, Rahul and Priyanka. crisscrossed the state, just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP president J.P Nadda did, the more extensive nature of top Congress leaders appear to have helped their candidates further capitalise on the anti-incumbency sentiment that was visible in the election results on Sunday.
To the BJP, Modi, Shah, and Nadda held 47 public meetings and road shows. The Modi magic appeared to have helped two of his party candidates, Alleti Maheshwar Reddy in Nirmal and K Venkata Ramana Reddy in Kamareddy with the latter trouncing BRS and Congress presidents K. Chandrashekar Rao and A. Revanth Reddy.
Modi addressed eight public meetings, two of which were in Hyderabad and Secunderabad, along with one road show in Hyderabad. Though he also addressed meetings in Maheshwaram, Gajwel, Karimnagar, and Mahbubabad, BJP candidates from these constituencies could not win.
Shah’s efforts, paid off only in one constituency of Armoor where BJP’s Paidi Rakesh Reddy won. In all, Shah addressed 20 public meetings and road shows.
Nadda too had one impactful effort, despite his 19 public meetings and roadshows with BJP candidate Dhanpal Suryanarayana from Nizamabad Urban, where Nadda addressed a meeting, winning on Sunday.
On his party, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath gave a huge push to T Raja Singh in Goshamahal with the BJP candidate overcoming some anxious moments during the counting as the leads kept switching between him and BRS’ Nand Kishore Vyas.
For the Congress, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi addressed nearly 50 public meetings and took part in roadshows covering nearly 40 constituencies among which Congress candidates won from 16 constituencies. Among the constituencies where either Rahul or Priyanka campaigned and their party leaders won are Kodangal, Husnabad, Dharmapuri SC, Manthani, Peddapalle, Vemulawada, Kollapur, Shadnagar, Palakurthy, Bhongir, Khammam, Madhira, and Sathupalli.
