New Delhi: In Telangana the grand alliance (Mahakutami or Prajakutami) might not have been able to unseat the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) or give a tough fight. What is clear from the available information is that the Congress, the biggest party of the alliance, was able to not only hold its ground, but also its vote share.

The Congress, which contested 99 seats in this election out of the 119, increased its vote share by 3.2%. Moreover, the party finished second in 66 seats. In other words, not only in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and MP, Congress also performed well in Telangana.

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This despite the fact that between the last elections (2014) and the current one, many Congress leaders and at least 8 MLAs crossed over to the ruling TRS. Moreover, weeks before the election, few prominent Muslim faces of the party joined the TRS. However, it seems to have hardly any impact on its vote share, as hinted by The Wire in one of its reports.

In the 2014 election, the party had won 21 seats out of the 119 it had contested. However, at the time of the assembly’s dissolution, the Congress had only 13 MLAs. If compared with the last election results, the Congress has only lost two seats in the recently concluded polls. However, if compared with the number of MLAs (13) Congress had at the time of dissolution of the assembly, it gained six seats, while the TRS’s strength came down from 90 to 88.

Moreover, four TRS ministers were defeated by Congress candidates, as was the speaker of the legislative assembly. Jupally Krishna Rao, minister for textiles, was defeated by the Congress’s B. Harshavardhan Reddy by more than 12,000 votes from Kollapur. Similarly, minister of roads and buildings, Thummala Nageswara Rao was defeated by K. Upender Reddy from Palair constituency by nearly 8,000 votes. The minister for transport, Patnam Mahender Reddy lost to Congress’s Rohith Reddy in Tandur constituency.

Speaker S. Madhusudhana Chary and tribal welfare minister Azmeera Chandulal lost to  Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy and Danasari Anasuya alias Seethakka.

The Congress securing second position in 66 seats out of 99 it contested, also suggests that, the alliance might not have succeeded as a whole yet vote transfer did happen in favour of the Congress. Hence, it can be said that, forming an alliance with Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was not a bad idea and it is likely to continue in the future.

According to a Times of India report, AICC Telangana in-charge R.C. Khuntia said that “Kutami will continue.” The other leaders in the alliance also felt the same. A source in the party confirmed the veracity of the the news report to The Wire, stating it will continue till the 2019 general election.

It can be recalled that on September 11, once arch-rivals Congress and TDP formed a grand alliance in a bid to defeat the ruling TRS. Apart from the Congress and the TDP, the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) were also part of the alliance.

As far as the 11.2% decline in the TDP's vote share is concerned, political observes believe this was due to two reasons. One, towards the end of the campaign, an anti-Andhra party, as TDP was referred to by the chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, undercurrent was seen. The anti-Andhra party sentiment is evident from the fact that A. Revanth Reddy, one of the most popular leaders, lost the election. He crossed over to the Congress from the TDP only last year.

The other reason is that the party contested fewer seats in the 2018 election than in 2014. During the previous election, the party was in an alliance with the BJP and contested 72 seats. This time around, it only contested 13 seats, resulting in an obvious decline in its vote share.

Note: An earlier version of this article said three TRS ministers were defeated. It was updated at 12.40 pm on December 14 to reflect the fact that four ministers were defeated.

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