TRS party completely swept GHMC polls and roared again with the never before victory.
Reacting on the election result, IT minister KTR called it a ‘universal acceptance’ of the TRS by all sections of society in Hyderabad, while the opposition TD-BJP combine and the Congress received a drubbing.
Even in the areas, where Andhrites are surrounded with, TRS managed to win, creating the history. Excepting MIM, which won 44 seats, TRS almost had one side war, bagging 99 seats out of the total 150 seats.
After the formation of a separate Telangana state, this was the first GHMC elections and this range of victory by TRS, is being considered as the big boost by the party TRS officials.
In the previous GHMC elections in 2009, TRS could not even a single seat, while Congress bagged 52, MIM 43 and TDP bagged 45 seats and BJP had five corporators.
Two bedroom scheme, fewer power cuts, water supply in face of a severe crisis, better law and order, the party’s approach towards settlers and forthcoming projects for Hyderabad, are the major points, where Hyderabadis could not move away from TRS.
To the surprise of many, in several winning grounds of Congress and TDP earlier, dominated by the settlers, TRS won, giving a jolt to all the oppositions. However, the TRS could not win at the KPHB Colony ward, which is a bastion of the Kamma community.
The TDP could win only one seat - KPHB Colony ward. Overall, the BJP-TD combine won five seats, out of which BJP won four seats.
Meanwhile, the Congress, which won 52 seats in 2009, could only win two wards in GHMC elections - Patancheru and Boudhanagar.
But this range of victory has effectively shut the door on the TDP and indicated for the future that, even Andhra Pradesh settlers are behind TRS. To everyone’s surprise, the TRS won in wards that fall under Assembly seats held by TD MLAs, such as Quthbullapur, Kukatpally, Serilingampally and Uppal.
None of the independent candidates won this time. This victory will also be a major boost to KTR, who is set to take over the Municipal Administration and Urban Development ministry.
Thanking all Hyderabadis for the victory, KTR tweeted, “Humbled & deeply grateful for your tremendous vote of confidence. Let’s make Hyderabad cleaner, greener, safer & smarter.”
In 2014, Congress could not win a single Assembly seat out of the 24 in the GHMC area. The party ended up with two wards, out of 150 in the GHMC. It has lost deposits in the Medak and Warangal bypolls held after the formation of Telangana state, and all the elections held further.
Even TDP leaders were shocked after the results were announced, who are till then very confident of the Seemandhra voters in Hyderabad. Responding after the result, Telangana TDP president, L. Ramana said, “people changed their minds completely which we failed to gauge. We concentrated on localities with elite voters whereas the TRS focused on basti voters. We believed that the Hyderabad voter would be with us, but things changed unexpectedly.”
He said the TD was affected by MLAs and leaders defecting to the TRS and said the results warranted a change in party strategies.
The BJP contested 68 divisions and ended up with four. It had won five Assembly seats in 2014, and five divisions in the 2009 GHMC elections.
Senior leader and MLC N. Ramachandra Rao said, “When the TD or the Congress was in power earlier, they had won majority in the GHMC. The trend has repeated this time too. But we need to analyse the debacle and take corrective steps.”
By Phani Ch
