Vol. XLII No. 51 December 23, 2018
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On Telangana Assembly Elections

Kambhampati Sarma

THE election results  for Telangana state, have  not only brought Telangana Rashtra Samiti  to power for the second term, but also, the incumbent Party, TRS improved its position considerably by winning 88 seats out of 119 seats of the assembly. The Congress alliance could scrap through with only 21 seats, including two seats for the TDP. TJS and CPI drew a blank. Two independents who won the elections have also joined the TRS, taking the tally of TRS to 90.  The AIMIM could retain all their seven seats.

The BJP could win only one single seat out of 119 seats contested. BJP had five seats in the previous assembly. In spite of putting big money and high level campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, they could win only one seat.

The Bahujan Left Front which contested 107 (after rejection of 12 nominations) seats including 26 seats contested by CPI(M), could not win a single seat. CPI(M)  polled less votes than last time. Total votes polled by CPI(M) in the state are 91,099 (0.4 per cent) and the total votes polled by BLF are 2,32,514(1.1per cent).

Except for the TRS and the BSP, all parties have polled less votes than last time. The main reason for the increase of BSP vote share is that the rebels from other parties had joined the BSP. A big victory for the TRS became possible because of the effect of a number of welfare schemes introduced by the government, because of sentiment and money.

All parties are preparing for panchayat elections scheduled in January 2019 and for the general elections later in 2019.