Hyderabad: The ruling Congress and the BJP in Telangana on Tuesday came up with impressive performances in the Lok Sabha elections by winning eight seats each, out of the total 17 constituencies, handing out a major blow to the BRS, which drew a blank.
With eight seats, Telangana is one of the states to make a key contribution to the Congress’ national kitty.
Telangana is one of the few states in the country where Congress is in power on its own.
Eight out of 17 is a significant rise in the Congress’ tally in Telangana as it had won only three seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The energetic campaign led by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, who is also the state unit president of the Congress in the state, is seen as a major factor that helped the party.
Reddy made a strident attack on the BJP during the election campaign, alleging that the saffron party would change the Constitution and abolish reservations if voted to power for a third term.
The six poll ‘guarantees’ announced by the Congress ahead of the Assembly elections held in November last year, continued to help the party in the parliamentary elections as well.
The six ‘guarantees’ of the Congress include free travel for women in state-run public transport buses, LPG cylinders for Rs 500 and free supply of electricity up to 200 units to the poor.
Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and also Priyanka Gandhi had also campaigned for the party in the state.
The BJP in Telangana also made significant gains in the present Lok Sabha polls as it doubled its tally. The party had won four constituencies in the 2019 general elections.
The popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya and the achievements of the Modi government are seen as the factors that led to the BJP increasing its seats.
PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other senior BJP leaders had addressed several rallies in Telangana in the run-up to Lok Sabha polls.
Interestingly, BJP leaders Bandi Sanjay Kumar, D Arvind, Eatala Rajender and M Raghunandan Rao, who were defeated in the assembly polls last year, secured big wins in the present Lok Sabha polls.
The K Chandrasekhar Rao-led BRS is the biggest loser in the Lok Sabha polls as it failed to win even a single seat in Telangana.
The BRS, which had a stranglehold over Telangana politics about an year ago, now faces an uphill task to bounce back in view of the severe drubbing it received in last year’s Assembly elections and the present parliamentary elections.
The alleged inaccessibility of BRS leadership, the arrest of BRS MLC K Kavitha by the ED in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22 are seen as some of the factors that led to the party’s poor performance.
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi won the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency for a fifth consecutive term defeating BJP’s K Madhavi Latha, who put up a spirited fight.
Polling for the 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Telangana was held in a single phase on May 13.
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