In Telangana battle, saffron hue wipes out pink party; Congress’s honeymoon continues | India News – Times of India

HYDERABAD: For the first time since the formation of Telangana in 2014, Congress and BJP have become dominant political forces in the state, both sharing the spoils of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections with eight seats each of the 17 up for grabs. This was largely a result of a formidable force like the BRS being decimated.
BJP’s performance is especially remarkable given that it had no traditional base here like Congress.The four seats it won in 2019 gave it hope of building a base in the southern states beyond Karnataka and the party started working towards making it a gateway to the south. BJP was eying 10 seats but managed eight. BJP had won only one seat in 2014 and four in 2019. While it retained four—Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Se cunderabad—it added Malkajgiri, Chevella, Mahbubnagar and Medak to its tally. The saffron party swept the Greater Hyderabad region, leaving only Hyderabad for Asaduddin Owaisi.

Congress rode the honeymoon period it was enjoying since winning the assembly election in Dec last year. In 2014, it had got only two seats and three in 2019.

The Lok Sabha polls outcome strengthens chief minister A Revanth Reddy, who also heads the Telangana Congress unit. Revanth had openly declared that these results were a referendum on state govt’s performance and projected it as a battle between Congress and BJP, while dismissing BRS as a ‘fringe player’.
BRS had 11 seats in 2014 and nine in 2019 but drew a blank this time. This is the only election where the pink party could not win a single seat since its inception in 2001, losing even the Medak seat, which BRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao had won in 2014.