The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has emerged as the single-largest party, winning 55 of the 150 wards in the closely-fought Hyderabad municipal elections. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stole the show, making huge gains to bag 48 wards while congress has not improved a single seat .congress state president of Telangana Uttam kumar Reddy resigned owning responsibility .
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) trailed the BJP, but performed well. Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM has emerged as the kingmaker with 44 wards and 10 ex-officio members. His party continued to hold sway in Hyderabad as it held on to its 2016 tally. The Congress, which has been pushed to the sideline, has only two seats. The results have been declared for 149 out of 150 divisions of GHMC.
The TRS this time won fewer seats than it won in the 2016 elections when it had won a majority in the elections to GHMC.
In the last GHMC elections in 2016, the TRS won 99 wards, the AIMIM 44, the BJP four, Congress two and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) one. Before that in 2009, the Congress had bagged 52 wards, TDP 45, AIMIM 43 and the BJP four in the GHMC elections. This time, the BJP is hoping to better its tally as its vote share has gone up in the state. Its confidence also went up after winning election in the Dubbak assembly constituency.
The result is not what we expected. We fell short by 20-25 seats than our expectations. 10-12 seats saw a margin of less than 200 votes. There’s nothing to be disappointed, we will be single largest party,” said Telangana minister KT Rama Rao or KTR, the Chief Minister’s son.
BJP President JP Nadda said, “The people of Hyderabad have made it clear what will be the results of the Telangana assembly elections (2023). I can say with confidence that people of Telangana have decided to say goodbye to the corrupt KCR government.”
