HYDERABAD: It was a bitter-sweet moment for TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu as well as his Telangana counterpart and TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao. Naidu’s ally, the BJP, came out with flying colours, winning one of the two MLC seats that went to polls in Telangana - that too, in the Hyderabad-Ranga Reddy-Mahbubnagar constituency. But Naidu’s party, TDP, lost one MLC seat in AP - that too, in the twin Godavari districts considered its bastion while it pocketed the MLC seat in the State’s new capital region.
Sharing the same fate as TDP, its bete noire in Telangana, the TRS, lost the MLC seat in Hyderabad to the BJP but managed to win in Warangal region, the heart of Telangana. The BJP’s victory is all the more discomfiting for the ruling TRS as the saffron party is going all-out to expand its base in Telangana with an eye on the ensuing corporation polls.
“My victory indicates good days are ahead for BJP in Telangana. I am sure we will win the ensuing GHMC polls with the cooperation of our ally, TDP,” Ramachander Rao said.
The defeat of TRS and TDP is being seen as reflective of the growing dissatisfaction among the educated over their policies in their respective States.
TRS candidate and Telangana joint action committee leader G Deviprasad Rao’s defeat at the hands of BJP’s Ramachander Rao is being attributed to the unhappiness among the unemployed over the TRS government’s failure in filling vacancies in the State government.
Telangana Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir said, “As the TRS failed to keep its promise of providing one job to each family in the State, graduates taught it a fitting lesson in the MLC polls.” Telangana TDP leader A Revanth Reddy went a step further, saying these results indicate that people are vexed with the TRS government.
However, the opinion is divided within the TRS. Some party leaders blamed Deviprasad for not roping in top party leaders for the poll campaign. Some others pointed at the fact that a majority of the voters in the segment are from Seemandhra. Interestingly, a few claimed internal sabotage. Some others in the TRS felt the BJP had implemented a successful poll strategy by deploying half-a-dozen Union ministers for the poll campaign, besides ensuring that the TDP’s support among the Seemandhra voters passed on to it smoothly.
Nonetheless, the TRS, by winning the Nalgonda-Warangal-Khammam graduates’ constituency has once again proved that its vote-bank in areas where Telangana sentiment is strong is in tact. Its candidate P Rajeshwar Reddy’s win is just a formality as he was way ahead of his nearest rival, BJP’s Errabelli Rammohan Rao, when reports last came in.
As far as AP is concerned, elections to two MLC seats left the TDP leaders disappointed. Party candidate AS Ramakrishna won the Krishna-Guntur constituency. However, its nominee KVV Satyanarayana Raju alias Chaitanya Raju lost to United Teachers’ Federation (UTI) candidate Ramu Surya Rao in the twin Godavari constituency.
“TDP’s defeat in the twin Godavari districts is a shock as we virtually swept the general polls in these two districts. It indicates lack of coordination between party leaders and MLAs,” Naidu said.