HYDERABAD: Bharatiya Janata Party had a bad day. After two months of campaigning, the saffron party’s leaders on Tuesday, when the dust settled, were left red-faced with just one seat in Telangana, four fewer than they had in 2014. The party was perhaps looking to at least retain its seats here, if not increase their number since they lost Rajasthan and Chattisgarh and perhaps Madhya Pradesh as well. Talk about rubbing salt into wounds.
Except for Goshamahal’s Raja Singh, not a single one of BJP’s former MLAs — Musheerabad’s K Laxman, Amberpet’s Kishan Reddy, Uppal’s NVSS Prabhakar and Khairatabad’s Chintala Ram Chandra Reddy — could survive the TRS’ onslaught. Even in Adilabad, which the party had said would be their ‘gateway to the South’, its candidate lost to TRS’ by more than 25,000 votes.
BJP had big plans and expectations for Telangana. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah, and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were some of the leaders that were roped to campaign in the State. But none of this worked. Despite these leaders addressing a total of nearly 180 public meetings among themselves, only ‘motor mouth’ Raja Singh managed to win.
However, the defeat does come as an opportunity to concentrate on strengthening its cadre for solo battles. In 2014, it had allied with the TDP. This time, it went in virtually alone since it had allied with Yuva Telangana Party, a little-known outfit.