HYDERABAD: It’s pink flag flying high in Telangana. After conquering Greater Hyderabad, the ruling TRS recently hoisted its pink flag atop two other municipal corporations—the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) and Khammam Municipal Corporation (KMC)—and also conquered Atchampet gram panchayat in Mahbubnagar, leaving little hope of revival for opposition parties..
While it was a clean sweep in Atchampet, the party’s target of winning 50-plus seats in GWMC took a beating as rebels played spoilers. Khammam, considered as a loose wicket for the pink party, however, gave the ruling party a convincing win.
The claims of TRS leaders that the contest was between the ruling party and its rebels proved true in GWMC with nine independents, all TRS rebels, winning the elections. They stood at the second place with TRS bagging 44 seats of the total 58 corporators. The Congress won four seats and the poor performance was attributed to the last-minute defection of Congress leader Baswaraju Saraiah to TRS. “Saraiah took away at least half a dozen of our winnable candidates with him to the TRS,” said a Congress leader.