BRS wins zero seats; BJP doubles its seats to 8, Congress 8 in Telangana

Hyderabad: Six months after the K Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) faced a debacle in the Telangana State Assembly polls by bagging only 38 seats, the party once again faced a humiliating defeat in the Parliament elections.

After winning nine seats in the 2019 General Elections, BRS was ‘duck out’ in the 2024 elections. The BRS contested 17 seats in Telangana and lost in all.

BJP and Congress split BRS votes

Statistics indicate that the BRS vote share has been largely divided between the BJP and Congress, who won eight seats each. Telangana went to polls on May 13 and registered a voting percentage of 66.3 per cent.

As per the MP seats, the BJP’s numbers doubled in the state further strengthening the lotus party’s vote bank. After securing four seats – Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Secunderabad and Adilabad – in the last elections, the Modi-led BJP double their seat count to eight seats in the 2024 elections.

Though the lotus party did not perform as expected in states like Rajasthan, West Bengal and Maharashtra, in Telangana its performance reached new heights.

The BJP won Adilabad, Nizamabad, Secunderabad, Malkajgiri, Chevella, Mahabubnagar, Karimnagar and Medak. It is pertinent to note that the BJP MLAs who lost Assembly seats – Bandi Sanjay in Karimnagar, Raghunandhan Rao (Medak), Eatala Rajender (Malkajgiri) and Aravind Dharmapuri (Nizamabad) – won the Parliament seats.

Congress misses victory in urban areas

The Indian National Congress, led by chief minister A Revanth Reddy, bagged eight seats as well. The Congress’ seat share is up by five seats when compared to 2019 General Elections.

Winners from Congress include G Vamshi Krishna in Peddapalli, K Raghuveer (Nalgonda), R Raghuram Reddy (Khammam), P Balram Naik (Mahabubabad), Kadiyam Kavya (Warangal), Dr Mallu Ravi (Nagarkurnool), Suresh Shetkar (Zahirabad) and Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy (Nalgonda).

Despite being in power in the state, the Congress did not secure a single set in the urban constituencies.

Barrister Asaduddin Owaisi of AIMIM not only managed to retain his Hyderabad MP seat, he also won with a thumping majority of 3 lakh plus votes against his BJP opponent K Madhavi Latha, who made few headlines for the wrong reasons during the election period. Two criminal cases have been filed against the BJP candidate for poll violations.

BRS loses representation in Lok Sabha

Though the Congress and BJP maximised their vote share, what is talked about more is about BRS which bagged zero seats.

The pink party won’t have a single representative in the Lok Sabha. Many exit polls predicted one or no seats for BRS and that has come to pass.

The public attributes the defeat to reasons like ‘the arrogance of the leaders, change in name (TRS to BRS), alleged corruption in multi-crore irrigation projects and losing touch with people at the grassroots level.'

This is despite the welfare schemes and development that the state witnessed between 2014 and 2019. Despite former chief minister KCR campaigning big for the party soon after his hip replacement, the party did not register a seat.

‘Bad selection of candidates by BRS’

A senior politician told NewsMeter, “BJP won double the seats, thanks to the BRS MLAs for supporting them in the General elections. The BRS fielded candidates who won’t even win a corporator election. It was a bad selection of candidates; look at Malkajgiri where a first-timer R Laxma Reddy who parachuted from Congress was given the BRS ticket. Even former IPS officer RS Praveen Kumar lost in Nagarkurnool.”