TDP & TRS set to form governments

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) secured a clear majority in the first elections held for Legislative Assemblies post bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and are set to form governments in Seemandhra and Telangana, respectively. The two states will be notified on June 2. N Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP, which had an electoral alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), bagged 118 seats in the 175-member Seemandhra Assembly, while K Chandrashekar Rao-led TRS won 63 seats of 119 in Telangana.  

The Congress, which ruled the undivided Andhra Pradesh for a decade, bagged 20 seats in Telangana. The TDP bagged 15 seats, while its ally BJP secured five. The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) had won seven seats.

The issue of bifurcation, more than anything else, dominated the election debate and also the outcome of the polls both in Telangana and Seemandhra.

Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party, which caused a buzz, had bagged just 69 seats, way below the halfway mark of 88. The Jai Samaikyandhra Party, floated by former Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, could not open its account in Seemandhra.   

This is for the second time that the TDP had gained from its alliance with the BJP. Even in the 1999 elections, when the popularity of the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayaee was at its peak, the TDP forged an alliance with the BJP and retained power in the state.

The collapse of the Congress in Seemandhra and crossover of many of the party leaders to the TDP just before the elections also seemed to have helped the latter’s electoral prospects. The support Telugu film star Pawan Kalyan during the last leg of elections and the whirlwind tour of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who addressed five election rallies on a single day in Seemandhra, had further boosted the party's prospects in the elections.

The Congress was hopeful that it would get a majority in Telangana, as it had played a major role in the division of the state. People, however, felt otherwise and voted for the

TRS, which spearheaded a decade-long agitation for a separate state.