1984: TDP-Janata-BJP-CPM alliance dominates TG
This was the first Lok Sabha elections in the Telangana region after the formation of the TDP. In 1983, NT Rama Rao had swept to power in the state winning 201 out of 294 seats in the united Andhra Pradesh Assembly. However, in the Telangana region, both the Congress and the TDP had won an equal number of seats — 43
In the 1984 LS polls, the Telugu Desam — which was in alliance with the BJP, Janata Party, CPI and CPM — again swept Andhra. In the Telangana region, the TDP-led alliance bagged 10 seats while the Congress won in four
BJP’s Janga Reddy beats PV
With even Atal Bihari Vajpayee losing from Gwalior, the BJP won just two seats across India in the 1984 Lok Sabha polls — one was from Gujarat’s Mehsana and the other from the Telangana region. Its Hanamkonda candidate Janga Reddy defeated former chief minister PV Narasimha Rao by over 54,000 votes. “The Union home minister was roundly defeated in his home constituency by a relatively less known BJP functionary,” notes an Express front-page report dated December 29, 1984
But Narasimha Rao still entered the Lok Sabha thanks to his victory from Ramtek in Maharashtra. “Mr Rao, who first thought of shifting to a different and safer constituency in Andhra Pradesh, was accommodated in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra through the good offices of his ministerial colleague Vasant Sathe,” the Express report adds
Born in a poor agricultural family
Janga Reddy, then 49, had already been elected to the Assembly thrice. “Born in a poor agricultural family in Parkal of Warangal district, he took an active part in the student movement in his school days. Before entering active public life, he worked as a teacher,” notes an Express report headlined ‘The hero of Hanamkonda’. He had first been elected as an MLA in 1967 on a Jan Sangh ticket and had lost in 1977 on a Janata ticket from the Warangal LS segment
An Owaisi enters Lok Sabha for the 1st time
Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi of the Majlis, who stood as an independent from Hyderabad, won for the first time. In a three-cornered contest, Owaisi trailed the TDP’s Prabhakar Reddy till the first five rounds of counting. But he finally pulled ahead and bagged 2,22,187 votes while the TDP candidate finished a close second with 2,18,706 votes. “The Congress-I was a poor third with 1,30,272 votes. The MIM candidate was greeted with gusto and victory calls in the old city,” an Express report notes
Two former CMs win, one against ‘favourite Bandaru Dattatreya’
The Congress won only from Secunderabad, Khammam, Karimnagar and Nizamabad. In Khammam, former CM Jalagam Vengala Rao won comfortably. In Secunderabad, former CM T Anjaiah “ won an unprecedented neck-to-neck race against the largely favourite BJP candidate Bandaru Dattatreya” by an around 14,000 vote margin, notes an Express report
Inputs: Manda Ravinder Reddy;
Research: Amrutha Kothapally
