Riding anti-incumbency wave, welfare plank, Congress ousts BRS in Telangana

Spearheaded by Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A Revanth Reddy, the Congress’s campaign, buoyed by the party’s victory in the May Karnataka polls, dashed the hopes of two-term Chief Minister and BRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao or KCR of pulling off a hat-trick banking on his multiple welfare schemes for various sections.

The BRS, which had bagged 88 seats in the 2018 polls, saw its tally plunge to 39 seats. The party however won most of the urban seats in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts, where it had feared that a sizeable number of Andhra Pradesh-origin voters might desert the party but they largely stood by it.

Six of the BRS’s 14 ministers – Puvvada Ajay, S Niranjan Reddy, Koppula Eshwar, Indrakaran Reddy, Errabelli Dayakar Rao, and V Srinivas Goud – were routed in the polls.

The Congress, which had got just 19 seats in the previous election, won 64 this time, running its campaign on an agenda of change.

The grand old party swept the rural belts, winning many seats in erstwhile undivided districts of Nalgonda, Warangal, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Khammam, Mahbubnagar and Adilabad. The party also bagged the coal belt constituencies in the Khammam region.

The BJP, which had won just 1 seat in the 2018 election and two more in the subsequent bypolls, bagged 8 seats this time. The BJP’s vote share has also gone up from 7 per cent to 14 per cent.

Two BJP MLAs – M Raghunandan Rao from Dubbaka and Etela Rajender from Huzurabad – lost the polls, and so did the party’s three sitting MPs including D Arvind, Soyam Bapurao and party firebrand and ex-state unit chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar.

After more than nine years of the BRS’s rule, it appeared to be mostly a desire for change among a large section of people that propelled the Congress to power in the country’s newest state.

The BRS’s welfare schemes were countered by similar schemes in enhanced form that the Congress proposed in its manifestos and declarations.

In the final analysis, the BRS’s schemes seemed to be no match for a “pro-change wave”, especially in rural parts of the state, in favour of the Congress. There was resentment among a large section of small and marginal farmers, who are beneficiaries of the Rythu Bandhu scheme, as they felt that big farmers were receiving more money. Many jobless youths and civil service aspirants were upset with the KCR dispensation for not being able to conduct the state public service group 1 and 2 exams without paper leaks and cancellations.

The Congress also got several strongmen on board in different districts, who played a key role in ensuring the party’s victory there.

Several of them returned to the Congress from the BRS or the BJP ahead of the polls. Komatireddy brothers – Venkat Reddy and Raj Gopal Reddy – not only won with huge margins from Nalgonda and Munugode respectively but also delivered eight other seats from the region. Gaddam brothers – GaddamVivekanand and his brother Vinod – also won Chennur and Bellampalli and adjoining seats for the party.

Aided by strategists like Sunil Kanugolu, who had also helped the Congress romp home in the Karnataka polls, the Telangana Congress leaders managed to communicate effectively to the voters about the party’s six major “guarantees” and manifesto promises.

Revanth Reddy’s campaign rallies drew massive crowds. His speeches at such public meetings used to often hit high notes when he announced that “In November, BRS government gave you senior citizens and women Rs 2,000 as pension, but in December Congress government will start giving you Rs 4,000 per month. BRS is promising to increase Rythu Bandhu to Rs 16,000 in the next four years but we will start giving Rs 15,000 from next season itself.’’ Such pledges also swung votes towards the Congress.

In his reaction to the Congress’s victory, which he dedicated to martyrs for Telangana statehood, Revanth Reddy said it is the party’s responsibility to fulfil Telangana people’s aspirations after forming the government in the state. “It is a people’s mandate… The simple point is that they (people) wanted change. They wanted to defeat KCR. They have defeated KCR. That’s all,” he said.

Although KCR and Revanth Reddy won their elections with a huge margin from their Gajwel and Kodangal seats respectively, both of them were defeated from their second seat, Kamareddy, by the BJP’s K Venkata Ramana Reddy.

KCR’s son and Minister K T Rama Rao or KTR, the BRS’s working president, congratulated the Congress and said that his party would take it as a “learning experience” and work on it.

Revanth Reddy welcomed KTR’s wishes, saying he expects the BRS’s cooperation in providing good governance to the people.