The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in Telangana received a setback with candidates backed by the party losing the elections to three seats of the Legislative Council. Two outgoing members of the upper house of the state legislature were among the candidates who lost the elections.
Senior Congress leader and former Minister T Jeevan Reddy was declared elected from Karimnagar-Adilabad-Nizamabad-Medak graduates constituency as the counting of ballots ended in the early hours of Wednesday.
Jeevan Reddy, who was defeated in the Legislative Assembly elections held in December last year, trounced his nearest rival Chandrashekhar Goud of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) by a margin of 39,430 votes.
K Raghotham Reddy of Progressive Recognised Teachers' Union (PRTU), supported by the Congress, won Karimnagar-Adilabad-Nizamabad-Medak teachers constituency. He defeated former Member of Legislative Council (MLC) Paturi Sudhakar Reddy, backed by the TRS.
TRS supported candidate and former MLC P Ravinder was also defeated in Nalgonda-Khammam-Warangal teachers constituency. United Teachers' Federation (UTF) candidate A Narsireddy, supported by the Congress and the CPI, won the seat. Polling for these seats were held on March 22.
Responding to the results, All India Congress Committee (AICC) Spokesperson Dasoju Sravan told reports in Hyderabad that the TRS-era “would come to an end soon.”
“KCR had won the last Assembly elections through EVM manipulations and other irregularities. However, the results of MLC elections show that TRS has entered the rejection zone. The results clearly show that people are now looking for a change and they would vote in favour of Congress candidates in Lok Sabha elections,” he said.
This is the first loss for TRS since it was elected into power in 2014 following the bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh. In December last year, it had swept the Assembly polls, winning 88 out of the total 119 seats up for grabs.
IANS inputs