TRS loses face in its own backyard

Two TRS-backed candidates have emerged victorious while the Congress-supported nominee won in one of the six Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council seats for which elections were held on February 21.

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti's efforts to spread its wings to southern Telangana and showcase that the statehood sentiment is strong in the entire region received a setback as it could not win the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council seat from the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgoda Teachers' constituency.

The TRS, however, managed to secure victory for the two candidates it supported in north Telangana.

Elections to six Legislative Council seats -- three Graduates' and three Teachers' constituencies in Telangana and coastal Andhra regions -- were held in all on February 21 and, after counting since Monday, results were finally declared on Tuesday.

In the final analysis, the TRS-backed candidates won two seats, the Progressive Recognised Teachers' Union two, the Progressive Democratic Front one and the Congress-supported nominee one seat.

The ruling Congress-backed candidate Ravi Kumar Verma won the East-West Godavari Graduates’ constituency.

The YSR Congress is said to have extended tacit support to the Congress in Hyderabad.

TRS-supported Swami Goud and P Sudhakar Reddy emerged victorious from the Karimnagar-Medak-Adilabad-Nizamabad Graduates and Teachers’ constituencies respectively.

Swami Goud was leader of the Telangana NGOs' Joint Action Committee that took an active part in the statement struggle while Sudhakar Reddy was a former MLC.

In Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda Teachers’ constituency, however, the TRS tasted bitter defeat as its nominee Varada Reddy lost to Progressive Recognised Teachers’ Union’s Pula Ravinder.

"We will prove that the Telangana sentiment is strong even in Khammam and Nalgonda by winning this seat," the TRS leadership had announced when Varada Reddy filed the nomination early this month.

That clearly did not happen, as the election results proved otherwise.