Eatala, Bandi, Aravind, Raghunandan: Rejected in assembly polls, accepted in LS elections

Hyderabad: Lok Sabha results in Telangana are an indication that all is not lost if you taste defeat in elections. There is hope again to win the trust and confidence of the people. And, some contestants have shown that this can be done within a matter of just six months.

Eatala Rajender, Bandi Sanjay, Dharmapuri Aravind, and M Raghunandan Rao all contested in the 2023 assembly elections. Eatala contested from Huzurabad and Gajwel, Bandi Sanjay from Karimnagar, Aravind from Koratla, and Raghunandan from Dubbak assembly constituencies. Election results came as a surprise as all the four heavyweights tasted defeat.

Cut to the present, the four of them entered the fray in Lok Sabha elections and won the confidence of the voters again. Eatala, Bandi, and Aravind posted big wins over their opponents while Raghundan emerged victorious with a nearly 40k margin in a triangular fight between BJP, BRS, and Congress.

Sri Ganesh's fortunes change in six months

Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly by-election winner Sri Ganesh's fortunes changed big time in a matter of six months. In the 2023 assembly elections for Telangana, Sri Ganesh entered the fray on a BJP ticket from the same segment and lost the election.

Ex-MLA Sayanna's daughter Lasya Nanditha (BRS) won the confidence of the people and got elected as an MLA. However, in a tragic accident on the city outskirts, the young MLA lost her life necessitating a by-election. Sri Ganesh switched loyalties from BJP to Congress a couple of months ago and was also given the Congress ticket to contest in the by-poll. He won the confidence of the Cantonment voters this time and emerged a winner.

Interesting vote-share trends

The party-wise voting share in Telangana gave an interesting observation. Although both Congress and BJP won the same number of seats, the voting share stats were not the same. The Congress vote share was 5 percent higher than that of the BJP. Congress vote share was 40.10 percent while that of BJP was 35.08 percent.

Congress candidates romped home to victories with a huge margin of votes. The additional five percent vote share for Congress contributed to the big victories of the party candidates in seven segments. Compared to the 2019 elections, Congress got 29.48 percent vote share and won three seats while BJP secured 19.45 percent vote share thus helping it to win 4 seats. If we look at the 2019 and 2024 election figures, an increase of 10 percent in vote share helped Congress to bag five more seats than in 2019, while BJP almost doubled its voting share and seats this time when compared with the 2019 elections.

BRS draws a blank despite third highest vote share

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) did not win a single seat although the party garnered a vote share of 16.68 percent overall. Congress leaders alleged that BRS cadre and vote bank voted for BJP candidates in some segments to ensure Congress' defeat. If we compare with 2019 election data, BRS' voting share was the highest (41.29 percent) compared to other parties and understandably it won nine out of the 17 seats. A dip in almost 25 percent voting share this time resulted in the party suffering a big setback. Political pundits say this is the first time that BRS has had no representation in Lok Sabha since it was formed in 2004. K T Rama Rao and Harish Rao said that although BRS was disappointed with the results the party will bounce back soon.