HYDERABAD: The voteshare of the BJP in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections was just 0.25 per cent less than that of the ruling TRS, claimed BJP Telangana president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Saturday. He pointed out that while the BJP secured 35.56 per cent of the votes polled, the TRS secured 35.81 per cent votes. This is a dramatic rise in voteshare for the saffron party, which could only secure 10 per cent votes in the previous GHMC elections held in 2016. Bandi said that this showed that the BJP gave the TRS a run for its money in almost all divisions this GHMC elections.
Out of the 150 divisions, the BJP won 48 divisions and came second in 79 divisions. The saffron party lost two seats by a thin margin of less than 100 votes, five seats by a margin of less than 500 votes, and another five seats by a margin of less than 1,000 votes.
“The TRS has just 8,456 votes more than the BJP. In the previous elections, the TRS had gotten 44 per cent voteshare, and it has now been reduced by around 9 per cent,” said Bandi. The gains that the BJP made this GHMC elections are massive, because in 2016, when the party was in alliance with the TDP, it had contested in 68 divisions, and could win just four divisions. The saffron party leaders are now hopeful that they will win a majority of the 23 Assembly constituencies under the GHMC limits in the next Assembly elections.