HYDERABAD: The outcome of the Lok Sabha elections has sent alarm bells ringing in the TRS camp while allowing BJP and the Congress the first strings of hope that they are no longer down and out but could look forward for better days in future.
The TRS, which hoped to win 16 of the 17 LS seats (it left Hyderabad to its ally AIMIM) had to let go off seven seats, four to BJP and three to Congress. Those seats it had lost included its sitting seats - Nizamabad (K Kavitha), Adilabad (G Nagesh), Karimnagar (B Vinod), Bhongir (Boora Narasaiah Goud), but won two new seats - Khammam, Nagarkurnool which were held by YSRC and Congress in the past. It had retained its seven seats - Chevella, Mahbubnagar, Medak, Peddapalli, Warangal, Mahabubabad and Zaheerabad.
There is a slide in its performance in Lok Sabha vis a vis Assembly elections in 2018. The TRS which secured 88 of the 119 seats in Telangana Assembly elections enabling it to form a government for the second time in the State, could secure a majority in only 66 Assembly constituencies in the LS elections.
The BJP, on the other hand, which could win only one Assembly seat, secured a majority of votes in 21 Assembly segments in the Lok Sabha elections resulting in the saffron party winning four Parliamentary seats - Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Secunderabad.
In Nizamabad, where former MP K Kavitha lost, BJP was a distant third in all seven Assembly constituencies in 2018. However, now, the BJP candidate D Arvind secured majority votes in five Assembly segments. TRS alleges that the nexus between the Congress and the BJP led to the defeat of its party candidate.
The Congress had won 19 Assembly seats in the 2018 elections. In the Lok Sabha polls, it could secure majority in only 22 Assembly segments. Of these, 14 segments are in Nalgonda, Bhongir and Malkajgiri LS seats which it won.