Resignations blow up in TRS face, handed a drubbing in Telangana

Bypolls were held on Thursday for 18 Assembly seats — 16 necessitated by the resignation of TRS MLAs and two due to the death of sitting legislators — and four Lok Sabha seats. The TRS had resigned from the 20 seats on March 4, alleging that the YSR government was not making any efforts to carve out a Telangana state.

While the Congress secured six of the Assembly seats and one Lok Sabha, the surprise gainer was the TDP, which made its way back into Telangana with five Assembly constituencies and one Lok Sabha. The TDP also came in second on seven Assembly constituencies.

The results surprised the TRS as well as political analysts as both the Congress and TDP had kept silent on the Telangana issue during their campaigns. The TRS, on the other hand, kept accusing the Congress of reneging on its promise of a separate state.

That this didn’t cut much ice with the voters was apparent in the numbers today. Even Rao, who contested from the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency, could scrape through by a margin of only 15,000 votes, as against his lead of two lakh in 2004.

Speaking to reporters after the results were in, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy said the outcome was a slap on the “arrogant politics” of the TRS and said a solution to the Telangana issue was possible only through consensus. “The Congress high command is seized of the issue and an appropriate decision will be taken at an appropriate time,” he said, adding that the people of Telengana had reposed faith in the party to find a solution.

Of the 16 Assembly seats from where TRS members resigned, the party could retain only seven, whereas the Congress took five and the TDP four.

In the remaining two Assembly seats — Terlam in Vizianagaram district and Khairtabad in Hyderabad — the Congress and TDP retained their hold. Sons of the MLAs who had died, necessitating the two bypolls, won with impressive margins. Perhaps helped by the fact that neither the Congress nor the TDP put up a candidate against the other’s nominee.

While Rao was unavailable for comment, TRS Hanumakonda MP B Vinod Kumar admitted that the results were a setback. “The Telangana sentiment seems to have failed or lost direction,” Kumar said.

What was also clear was that while the Congress had won more seats, it was the TDP that had the most reason to celebrate. The results marked the party’s resurgence in Telangana, especially after its defeat here in the 2004 polls.

Political observers feel that the Telangana sentiment may have taken a backseat to other issues like unemployment, migration due to lack of irrigation facilities, drinking water problems and erratic power supply. The Chief Minister, in fact, promised to tackle these problems at the earliest today.

TDP Politburo member and MP Yerran Naidu, however, saw the results as a sign that the Congress popularity was on the wane.

TRS legislature party leader Vijaya Rama Rao was among those defeted. She lost to former TDP minister Kadiyam Srihari at Station Ghanpur in Warangal district.

The TRS lost in Nizamabad, Ranga Reddy, Hyderabad, Adilabad and Mahabubnagar districts, while it took all the seats for which elections were held in Karimnagar and Medak districts.

In Warangal district, known for its pro-Telangana mood, the TRS could get only one Lok Sabha seat, the other going to the TDP. It also lost one Assembly seat to the TDP, retaining the other.