In BJP Telangana wins, most gains in MP seats held by it

BJP’s bright stars

The BJP won Sirpur, Adilabad, Nirmal and Mudhole – which fall under the Adilabad Lok Sabha seat – and Armur and Nizamabad (urban) Assembly segments, which fall under the Nizamabad parliamentary constituency. The other two seats that the party won are Goshamahal and Kamareddy.

Another reason which can be attributed to the BJP win in the six segments is the Congress not putting up strong candidates here, thus failing to cash in on the anti-incumbency, resulting in the shift of the anti-BRS vote to the BJP.

Palvai Harish Babu, the BJP candidate from Sirpur, sprung a surprise as he defeated BRS strongman and three-time MLA Koneru Konappa by a margin of 3,088 votes. State BSP chief and former IPS officer R S Praveen Kumar came in third.

In Adilabad, Payal Shanker of the BJP emerged victorious, beating four-time BRS MLA Jogu Ramana by about 7,000 votes. Former MLA Aletti Maheshwar Reddy, who had switched over from the Congress in April this year, handed sitting MLA and minister A Indrakaran Reddy of the BRS a drubbing as he won by a margin of over 50,000 votes. Rama Rao Pawar of the BJP, in Mudhole, defeated the BRS’s G Vithal Reddy by a margin of 23,999 votes.

Meanwhile, P Rakesh Reddy defeated the BRS’s A Jeevan Reddy by a margin of 29, 669 votes while D Satyanarayana Gupta of the BJP took down Congress stalwart Mohammed Shabbir Ali by 15,387 votes in Nizamabad (Urban). Incidentally, Ali was shifted from his traditional seat of Kamareddy to accommodate TPCC chief Revanth Reddy, who lost to the BJP’s Katipally Venkata Ramana Reddy.

Heavyweights defeated

Arvind, who was fielded by the BJP in Koratla – which falls under the Lok Sabha seat he represents – lost to the BRS’s Kalvakuntla Sanjay. BRS MLC K Kavitha, whom Arvind had defeated in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, had camped in the Assembly constituency to ensure the sitting MP’s defeat.

A similar fate awaited Sanjay, who lost the Karimnagar seat to the BRS’s Gangula Kamalakar by 3,163 votes. Sitting BJP MLA Etala Rajender also lost the Huzurabad segment – which falls under the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat – to P Kaushik Reddy of the BRS by over 16,000 votes.

Breaking new ground

The BJP has managed to double its vote share from 6.98% in 2018 to almost 14%. Despite not posing a challenge to the BRS, the good news for the BJP is that it has won new seats in Adilabad and Nizamabad.

In 2014, the BJP had won five seats – Uppal in Rangareddy district, and Musheerabad, Amberpet, Khairatabad, and Goshamahal in Hyderabad district – with a vote share of just 4.20%.

In 2018, the party was decimated, with only T Raja Singh retaining his Goshamahal seat while tall leaders like K Laxman, G Kishan Reddy bit the dust. Kishan Reddy was subsequently elected from Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat, while Sanjay, who lost from Karimnagar Assembly seat was later elected as Karimnagar MP, as Arvind won from the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat.