Congress storms into BRS bastion Telangana, expands footprint in south
The near 10 year-old rule of the BRS came to an end on Sunday, but the party’s leader’s are confident that they will ‘bounce back’.
HYDERABAD: Extending its winning run in the south, the Congress on Sunday won 64 Assembly seats to form government in the BRS-dominated Telangana, with the southern solace coming in the midst of a saffron sweep of the Hindi heartland where BJP wrested two states from the grand old party and retained.
Congress had made a strong comeback in neighbouring Karnataka in May, defeating the BJP in the polls then.
The near 10 year-old rule of the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) came to an end on Sunday, even as Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao tendered resignation from his post, which was accepted by Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan.
BRS has been ruling the state since 2014, when Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh.
The party, which has 101 members in the outgoing Assembly, emerged victorious in 38 and was leading in 1 seat, as per latest EC figures.
Congress won 64 of the 118 seats it contested from.
It gave one seat to CPI where the communist party emerged victorious.
AIMIM won 6 seats and was leading in one.
A Congress delegation later mer Telangana Governor to stake claim on forming government.
The Telangana Assembly has a total strength of 119.
The BRS has 101 members in the outgoing House, while Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM has 7, Congress 5, BJP 3.
The All India Forward Bloc has one legislator.
There is one independent while there is one vacancy.
Anumula Revanth Reddy, who led the Congress’ charge, finds himself on the brink of a potential chief ministership.
The 56 year-old leader met top police officials of the state and discussed the security arrangements for the swearing-in ceremony, likely on December 4 or 9.
He welcomed the people’s mandate in favour of the national party while BRS expressed disappointment over its failure to ensure a hattrick.
“It is a people’s mandate. We need not (do) a postmortem. Everything goes well, then only you will get that magic number. The simple point is that they (people) wanted to change. They wanted to defeat KCR (CM Rao). They have defeated KCR. That’s all,” Reddy told reporters.
Reddy said the people have decided the role of the opposition, and Congress expects the BRS’s cooperation in order to fulfil the people’s aspirations.
“To revive democratic values, we are expecting that the BRS will come forward,” he said.
It is the Congress’ responsibility to fulfil Telangana people’s aspirations after forming the government in the state, he added.
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