Telangana Assembly elections: Hat-trick for BRS or Congress dream finally come true?

Telangana heads to polls for its third Assembly election, with the ruling BRS looking for a hat-trick, the Congress dreaming of ruling, and the BJP testing its inroads. 3 lakh voters will decide the fate of 119 constituencies in a single phase poll. BRS banking on CM KCR's charisma, Congress on 'six guarantees', BJP on anti-incumbency wave.

As Telangana heads for the third Assembly election of its short electoral history, the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) is looking for a perfect hat-trick to retain power, while the main Opposition Congress is still dreaming of ruling the State whose birth it facilitated in 2014. For the BJP, dependent on its central leadership, this election will test whether it has been able to make any significant inroads into the State.

Almost 3 lakh voters are gearing up to exercise their franchise in 119 constituencies in a single phase poll slated for November 30.

The stakes are high for the three major parties, with the BRS (earlier known as the TRS) trying to fend off a spirited challenge by a resurgent Congress. Trying to emulate its success in neighbouring Karnataka, the Congress is focussed on taking its slogan of ‘six guarantees’ for welfare schemes to the voters.

After almost a decade in power, the BRS must overcome anti-incumbency sentiments, especially in constituencies where the track record of MLAs who have been renominated is a cause of worry. Apart from its welfare and developmental schemes, the ruling party is also banking on the charisma of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao, known as KCR, and a spirited campaign by Ministers K.T. Rama Rao and T. Harish Rao, and MLC K. Kavitha, all members of the CM’s family.

The BJP — considered a force to reckon with in 2019, when it wrested four Lok Sabha seats in the State, and then put up a spirited show in the subsequent Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections — has lost its steam due to the unceremonious change of its State unit chief Bandi Sanjay. It is battling internal frictions between old-timers and newcomers, but is trying its best to stay in the reckoning. It hopes to ride on an anti-incumbency wave and is campaigning against the family rule of the BRS, claiming that the ruling party is mired in corruption.

In the 2018 polls, which were held after the premature dissolution of the Assembly, nine months before its term was due to end, the BRS and the BJP had contested on their own, while the Congress joined hands with the Telugu Desam Party and the Telangana Jana Samiti to form a Mahakutami or grand alliance. The Majlis-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (MIM) confined itself to its strongholds in the old city of Hyderabad.

Despite triumphant expectations for the alliance, it was the BRS that scored a landslide, winning 88 seats with a vote share of almost 47%. The Congress had to be content with just 19 seats, followed by the MIM (7) and TDP (2). The BJP won a single seat — and lost deposits in dozens of constituencies — and the remaining two seats went to the All-India Forward Bloc and an Independent candidate. Post-election, several MPs from the Congress, TDP, AIFB and the Independent switched their loyalties to swell the BRS’ strength to more than 100.