Revision as of 02:47, 7 December 2020

2020

Hyderabad civic polls: 2020 vis-à-vis 2016

December 4, 2020: The Times of India

Hyderabad civic polls: 2016 vs 2020
From: December 4, 2020: The Times of India

Hyderabad civic polls: TRS still No.1 but loses huge ground; BJP makes big gains

NEW DELHI: The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) suffered a huge blow in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls as it failed to win a clear majority. The TRS emerged as the single largest party but it is the BJP which is celebrating as it has made huge inroads in the fiercely contested civic body polls.

The K Chandrashekar Rao-led TRS, which had swept the 2016 civic polls winning 99 wards, has returned with a greatly reduced strength bagging only 55 wards this time. It will now need the support of Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM to run the GHMC.

Upbeat over the party's impressive performance in the city civic poll, BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar said it was a "saffron strike" in which the electorate reposed faith in the BJP and voted against the ruling TRS.

The AIMIM, the third key player in these elections, has held its ground bagging 44 municipal seats, which is same as what it had managed in the last elections.

Reacting on the poll results, Owaisi said his party is confident that Telangana people will stop BJP from expanding its foot print. "We will fight the BJP in a democratic way. We are confident that people of Telangana will stop BJP from expanding its footprints in the state," Owaisi said.

Union home minister Amit Shah, who held a road show on the last day of campaigning, thanked the people of Telangana for reposing faith in the PM Modi-led BJP's politics of development.

KT Rama Rao, who managed the TRS campaign, claimed that the party lost with extremely narrow margins in about 10 to 12 divisions.

"I thank people of Hyderabad who chose TRS as the single largest party to represent them in Council. Result is certainly not what we expected, we're short of 20-25 seats," KTR said.

Congress relegated to distant fourth

For the Congress, the GHMC poll results will come as a huge disappointment. The party which won 2 seats in 2016 could not manage to better its tally despite all efforts.

The president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee N Uttam Kumar Reddy has resigned following the party's dismal performance in the civic polls.

The Congress saw key leaders leave the party ahead of the civic polls and has been relegated to a distant fourth in the civic body.

Significance of BJP's win

The BJP's impressive performance in these elections is significant as it clearly indicates that the party has replaced the Congress as the principal challenger to the TRS in the state.

In the last assembly elections, the BJP could manage to win only one seat with a vote share of 6.98 percent while the Congress had won 19 seats with a vote share of 28.43 percent.

However, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP made impressive gains winning 4 seats with a vote share of 19.65 percent. The party followed this with a victory in the Dubbaka by-election.

With an eye on the next assembly elections, the BJP's all-out campaign in the civic polls, which raised several questions, was a well planned move to quickly move in and occupy the void created by a dwindling Congress in the state.

For the TRS, the results of the Hyderabad civic polls will be an eyeopener and an indication of the kind of challenge that awaits the ruling party in the next assembly elections.

(With agency inputs)

BJP vote share spikes

Koride Mahesh, December 6, 2020: The Times of India

Winners with lowest margins; Winners with highest margins, December 2020
From: Koride Mahesh, December 6, 2020: The Times of India

Saffron vote share spikes in Hyderabad even as pink glow dims

HYDERABAD: It all boiled down to 0.25% of votes that changed the fortunes of both the TRS and BJP in the fierce electoral battle to gain control of Greater Hyderabad civic body.

The TRS’s vote share was 35.81%, while the BJP was not far behind with 35.56% vote share.

The small difference in vote share was enough to get the TRS seven seats more than the BJP. TRS won 55 divisions, while BJP candidates emerged victorious in 48 out of 149 divisions (Neredmet division’s result has been withheld). Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM bagged 44 wards and Congress bagged two divisions.

What is staggering to note here is the way the BJP has improved its vote share from just 10.34% to 35.56% in the last 4-5 years. Whereas, the TRS’s vote share saw a 8% fall from 43.85% to 35.81% in the same period.

In terms of number of votes, going by the figures provided by the returning officers, the TRS got 12.04 lakh votes of the total 34 lakhs votes polled. The BJP got 11.95 lakh votes. The difference was just 9,000 votes.

Interestingly, the ruling TRS, which had won 99 wards in 2016 elections, enjoyed a vote share of 43.85%.

BJP leaders said they missed out on more than a dozen divisions with very narrow margins. “We came second in 79 divisions and got sizeable votes in 23 other divisions which were won by the AIMIM and Congress,” BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar said.

Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM bagged 44 wards, the same number of seats it won in 2016 polls. What is significant is the improvement in its vote share by 3%. In the last civic elections, the party’s vote share was 15.85%, which has gone up to 18.76% in this election.

Congress won just Uppal and AS Rao Nagar divisions. The party’s vote share was 6.67%. In 2016, its vote share was 10%. “The party’s vote share was reduced by 3.5% in the last four years,” an analyt said.

The Telugu Desam Party’s predicament is no different. The TDP won only one seat in Kukatpally in the 2016 elections, but its vote share of 13.11% was better than BJP’s 10.34%. Both TDP and BJP contested together in that election. And in this elections, the TDP failed to win even one single ward though it fielded candidates in all the wards.