Kishore Poreddy Column :Takeaways from the Munugode semi-final

The debate over the real winners of the Munugode by-poll – Telangana Rashtra Samiti or the Communists notwithstanding, the outcome turns out to be a turning point in the political history of Telangana. Let us look at some of the takeaways from the by-election results.

The first takeaway is that the Congress party is no longer a party to reckon with in Telangana. The Congress lost its security deposit and stood a distant third with a meagre 10 per cent vote share.  The decimation of the Congress in election after election across India; the migration of their MLAs to TRS after the last two Assembly elections in the state – 2014 and 2018; the internal bickering within the Telangana unit after Revanth Reddy was made its chief; Rahul Gandhi’s non-participation though he was in the state during the campaign, and the unenthusiastic participation of the state Congress leaders, and the dismal electoral performance of the Congress candidates in every by-election in the state after 2018 — all had presaged what was in store for the Congress in this particular by-poll. The decimation of the Congress in its south Telangana bastion, especially in the Nalgonda district, left no doubts in anyone’s mind about the Congress’ prospects in the state for the foreseeable future.

The second takeaway from this election – considered pre-finals – is that the final fight for power in Telangana, due in 2023, will be between TRS/BRS (Telangana/Bharata Rashtra Samithi) and the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). The BJP has been growing in stature election after election since 2018, proving that it is the only party that can take the ruling TRS head-on and win.

Munugode’s result cemented this position.The third takeaway is that the people of Telangana are no longer willing to believe the propaganda of BJP’s rivals in Telangana. The false and derisive branding of BJP as a ‘North Indian party’, as a ‘Gujarati party’, as a ‘Cow-belt party’, as an ‘Urban party’, and as a ‘Communal party’ have all been rejected by the voters of Telangana. The Huzurabad and Munugode election results clearly point to the fact that any leader who chooses to join BJP from the TRS or the Congress will see their voters backing them enthusiastically.

The fourth takeaway is that the TRS and its leader Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao had come to the conclusion that he can no longer bank on Telangana sentiment to win elections. Two actions of KCR point to this fact. One, just days after the resignation of Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy from the Assembly, the TRS super-boss started discussions with the two Communist parties in the state – CPI and CPM – and within the month sealed alliances with both. One of the parties, CPM, had opposed the formation of Telangana to the end. Two, the change in name from TRS to BRS: dropping the word ‘Telangana’ from its name. The TRS campaign too, reflecting this realisation had changed its focus to blaming the Central government for every problem in the state, from its earlier reliance on blaming the erstwhile Andhra rulers who dominated the state politics.

The fifth takeaway is that anti-incumbency is really strong and that the Telangana voters are looking for an alternative.Adding up the traditional BJP vote share in the constituency with that of the Congress votes that migrated to Rajgopal Reddy does not explain the 86,485 votes that BJP polled in this election. In the earlier election, Rajgopal Reddy, fighting on behalf of the Congress, was supported by the TDP, TJS and one of the Communist parties — the CPI. His earlier tally in 2018 reflected this. This time, not even the entire Congress votes polled for him. This means a large number of voters who had voted for the TRS candidate in 2018 had voted against that party this time.

The final takeaway is that the TRS and BJP came out equally matched in this contest. Fighting this by-election in Munugode one year before the Assembly election in 2023, TRS engaged every resource at their disposal to win this election.The fact that every MLA, MP, MLC, Minister and Zilla Parishad leader of the TRS –  barring a few, were deployed in the constituency for more than a month, that every trick in the trade, including money, liquor, abuse of power, granting long-standing demands like Gattuppal Mandal, to threatening voters with denial of welfare benefits, promises of adopting villages and mandals by members of the first family, creating false narratives to divert attention from their failures, and scripting  the ‘Farmhouse drama’, in which the TRS accused the BJP of attempting to ‘purchase’ four of their MLAs, the ruling party spared no effort or resource. It was purely the votes of their alliance partners – CPI and CPM that pushed them into the lead.

To sum it up, as the anti-incumbency sentiment is at an all-time high, the BJP has emerged as the true champion of people’s causes and the only political alternative in ‘dagapadda Telangana’ (the Telangana that was deceived).

(The author is BJP TS spokesperson)