Hyderabad: TRS president and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) who had dreamt of forming a federal front at the Centre, suffered a shock as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won four Lok Sabha seats, including the seat of Nizamabad, where his daughter K. Kavitha tasted defeat by a massive margin of 71,000 votes in the hands of Dharmapuri Aravind, the saffron party’s candidate.
Impressive gains made by the BJP in Telangana have not only surprised its local leaders, but also the national leadership, which has almost given up on this southern state, after its disastrous show in the 7 December Assembly elections. In the election, the BJP tally fell from five to one MLA. However, within four months, the BJP has bagged four Lok Sabha seats.
The defeat of Kavitha, along with another TRS senior MP, Boinpally Vinod Kumar in the neighbouring Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat, has come as a shock to KCR who was expecting to repeat his spectacular win in the Assembly elections. If Kavitha is the daughter of KCR, Vinod Kumar is his relative and a trusted lieutenant in TRS since its inception in 2001.
KCR won 88 out of the 119 seats in the Assembly in December 2018 and was sure of winning at least 15 out of the total 17 Lok Sabha seats in the 11 April elections. Except for Khammam district, TRS won a majority of seats in all the other Lok Sabha segments in the Assembly elections. KCR had taken several precautionary measures to win even the Khammam seat, like admitting many Opposition strongmen into his party.
Khammam’s strongman Nama Nageswara Rao, who lost from the Khammam Assembly seat on a TDP ticket, was admitted into TRS and was fielded as its candidate in the Lok Sabha elections from Khammam seat. Nageswara Rao defeated his Congress rival Renuka Chowdary by a margin of around 1.68 lakh votes. But, KCR lost MP seats outside Khammam district, giving him a shock.
“Give us 16 MPs (excluding one MP seat held by ally, AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi), we will play kingmaker at the Centre”—was the slogan of KCR and his son and TRS working president K.T. Rama Rao in the Lok Sabha elections. KCR had intensified his federal front efforts with non-BJP and non-Congress parties during the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
KCR never had any doubts over his daughter Kavitha’s re-election as his government has done many things in the Nizamabad LS seat and the district in the last five years. KCR has inducted the Balkonda (it comes in the Nizamabad LS seat) MLA Vemula Prashanth Reddy into his Cabinet and also made Pocharam Srinivasa Reddy (MLA from Banswada, also from Nizamabad LS seat) the Speaker of the Assembly.
Not only that, KCR had personally supervised the electioneering in the Nizamabad LS seat and went to the home of former TDP minister Mandava Venkateswara Rao, from Dichpally, from the LS seat, and invited him to join the ruling party so that Kavitha can have an easy win. However, all efforts made by the Chief Minister went in vain as Kavitha faced a stiff fight from BJP’s Aravind, a novice politician.
Aravind, 41, son of expelled TRS Rajya Sabha member Dharmapuri Srinivas, joined the BJP two years ago and patiently built a base in Nizamabad so as to defeat sitting MP Kavitha. In fact, Aravind’s entry into BJP cost dear his father Srinivas, who was shown the door by KCR, based on a unanimous resolution by Nizamabad district TRS leaders led by Kavitha.
Kavitha was confident of her re-election, but Aravind, through social media, ran a campaign against the failures or shortcomings of the MP in the last five years. Being the daughter of the Chief Minister, her inaccessibility had become one of her disadvantages. Aravind successfully took advantage of anti-incumbency against Kavitha.
Aravind’s victory against the formidable Kavitha was also helped by the tacit support he received from Congress candidate Madhu Yashki Goud, a former MP from Nizamabad. Goud, who reluctantly contested against Kavitha this time, knew that he couldn’t win from here and lent his support to Aravind, whose father Srinivas was his one-time mentor in Congress in 2004.
The presence of 178 farmers who contested as Independents from Nizamabad, too, marred the prospects of Kavitha as they together polled 94,000 votes. The TRS leadership suspects that some of the farmers were backed by BJP and Congress and their presence worked against Kavitha. As a result, TRS, too, sent some farmers to file their nominations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi.
BJP’s Bandi Sanjay’s record win against Vinod Kumar by a margin of around 89,000 votes has jolted the TRS leadership. Sanjay, a corporator of Karimnagar Municipal Corporation, finished second in the December Assembly elections from the Karimnagar Assembly seat. Sanjay lost to TRS candidate G. Kamalakar, but earned enough sympathy to win the Lok Sabha election.
Ever since TRS was formed in 2001, Karimnagar was a stronghold of TRS and KCR won twice from here and Vinod Kumar appeared formidable this time too. Congress candidate Ponnam Prabhakar, who won this seat in 2009, too, was in the race, but Sanjay’s win against Vinod, pushing Prabhakar to the third spot, is a sign of growing discontent against the KCR government.
TRS also lost the Secunderabad LS seat to BJP’s G. Kishan Reddy by around 62,000 votes. Here, TRS fielded Animal Husbandry Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav’s son, Sai Kiran Yadav. Minister Yadav’s tacit understanding with Congress candidate and former MP M. Anjan Kumar Yadav at one stage appeared to be working against BJP, but the saffron party posted an impressive win in Secunderabad.
BJP’s Soyam Bapu Rao wrested the Adilabad (ST) Lok Sabha seat from TRS sitting MP G. Nagesh by a margin of around 58,000 votes. This, too, is another shocker for the TRS leadership who was expecting an easy win as they bagged nine out of 10 Assembly seats only four months ago.
The influence of neighbouring Maharashtra and Hindu vote polarisation helped the BJP win this crucial seat where RSS affiliates are active.
BJP also came second in two other MP seats—Mahabubnagar, where its candidate D.K. Aruna lost to her TRS rival Manne Srinivas Reddy by a margin of around 78,000 votes.
In Hyderabad, too, the BJP stood next to AIMIM’s sitting MP Asaduddin Owaisi, though with a gap of 2.7 lakh votes.
The BJP leadership is more than pleased with its show of winning 4 MPs and finishing second in two seats in Telangana.