Telangana Assembly Elections 2023: The Congress party looks set for a thumping victory in the Telangana Assembly Elections 2023, with the Election Commission of India showing the party in a comfortable lead ahead of the majority mark. The party appears to be comfortably poised to form a government on its own, a first in Telangana for the Congress.
As per EC trends at the time of filing this report, the Congress was leading in 65 seats (the halfway mark is 60) in the 119-member Telangana Legislative Assembly. The Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) is leading on 39 and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leading in 9 constituencies. The Bharat Rashtra Samiti has never been out of power ever since the state came into existence on June 2, 2014.
In another potential setback for KCR, Congress’ Telangana unit president Anumula Revanth Reddy was leading from the Kamareddy seat while CM KCR was trailing behind.
Reddy is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the Lok Sabha from the Congress representing Malkajgiri Constituency. In 2017, he left the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and joined Congress. In June 2021, Reddy was appointed as president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee. He replaced N. Uttam Kumar Reddy. From the Gajwel seat, Telangana CM KCR was leading.
As the counting proceeds, the fate of 2,290 candidates from 109 parties (including the national and regional parties) will be revealed. Those contesting include 221 women and one transgender. This time, a total of 103 legislators are re-contesting (most of them from the ruling BRS).
Telangana went to vote on November 30. In the 2018 Telangana Assembly elections, BRS (then Telangana Rashtra Samithi) won 88 seats.with a 47.4 per cent vote share. At that time, with 19 seats, the Congress party came a distant second.
End of the road for BRS!
Since the formation of the state in the year 2014, Bharat Rashtra Samiti has been holding power with K. Chandrashekar Rao (popularly known as KCR) as its chief minister. He was hoping for a hat-trick. However, the Congress party appears to have dashed all hopes!
Celebrations at Congress office
In Hyderabad, celebrations were seen outside the Congress office over the party crossing the halfway mark comfortably. The party workers chanted “Bye bye KCR”.
The Telangana poll results will be crucial for the Congress as it heads into the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. A win in Karnataka and Telangana would additionally concrete its presence in the South.
Factors contributed to the Congress’ upturn
Several factors seem to have played a role in the Congress’ strong performance. At the constituency level, there was a perceived anti-incumbency against BRS MLAs. On the other hand, the Congress rank and file were enthused by the party’s recent win in Karnataka. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s decline following the dumping of Bandi Sanjay as the Telangana unit chief also added to Congress’ chances. Last but not least, the perception that the BRS and AIMIM are in cahoots with the Bharatiya Janata Party did not work for the party’s favour either.