Less than a year before the next general elections in Andhra Pradesh, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, fighting for the formation of Telangana state, on Sunday suffered a shocking defeat as almost half of its Lok Sabha and assembly seats were wrested by the ruling Congress and the main opposition Telugu Desam Party.
The writing on the wall was clear -- the TRS had lost considerable ground in Telangana, Congress had made in roads into its base and the TDP had regained some of its ground lost during the last four years.
Of the 16 assembly seats in Telangana, which went to the bypolls because of en masse resignation of the TRS members, TRS could retain only seven seats. Similarly of the four Lok Sabha seats, which TRS resigned from last year, the party could retain only two and other two were shared by the Congress and the TDP.
The ruling Congress party wrested five and the TDP bagged four assembly seats earlier held by the TRS. Additionally, the Congress and the TDP also retained one assembly seat each, which had fallen vacant due to the death of their sitting members, taking their total seats to six and five respectively.
While the Congress and the TDP were gloating over their victory, a distraught TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao announced his resignation from the party president's post accepting the moral responsibility for the defeat. But the other party leaders outright rejected it saying only Rao can achieve the goal of Telangana state.
In Lok Sabha bypolls the biggest surprise came from Karimnagar where the TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao had to sweat it out to retain the seat with a margin of only 15,289 votes, which is far less than the two lakh odd majority he had secured in 2006 by elections.
T Jeevan Reddy of the Congress came second. The Congress wrested Adilabad Lok Sabha seat and the TDP walked away with the Warangal Lok Sabha seat. Hanmakonda was the other Lok Sabha seat, which the TRS could retain. TRS candidate Vinod Kumar won the seat.
In Adilabad, Madhusudhan Reddy of TRS came third behind Venugopala Chary of the TDP. In Warangal, senior TDP leader E Dayakar Rao emerged the winner over Congress. Sitting MP Ravindra Nayak of TRS came third.
In another blow to the TRS, its floor leader in the assembly G Vijayrama Rao was defeated by senior TDP leader Kadiam Srihari in Station Ghanpur constituency in Warangal district. For the TRS the biggest victory was registered by T Harish Rao, who retained Siddipet assembly constituency by a majority of 50,000 votes. Even in the constituencies which the TRS retained, the margin of its candidates had decreased significantly. In Viqarabad, senior TRS leader Chandrasekhar lost his deposit against Prasad Kumar of Congress.
The seats retained by the TRS include Kamlapur, Aler, Siddipet, Medaram, Huzurabad, Dommat and Cheriyal.
The seats Congress won include Musheerabad, Jadcharla, Viqarabad, Ditchpally, Yella Reddy, and retained Khairatabad.
TDP on the other hand won Khanapur, Station Ghanpur, Ramaympet, Secunderabad seats and retained Therlam seat.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which was quiet confident of winning Musheerabad assembly seat in Hyderabad, drew a blank as the wife of former chief minister T Anjaiah, T Maneamma defeated K Lakshman of the BJP by a margin of 2,000 votes. Sitting TRS member N Narsimha Reddy came third.
The other big news from the bypolls was the comeback of N Chandrababu Naidu's TDP since it lost power to Congress four years ago. Senior TDP leader M V Mysoora Reddy said, "The people have given a mixed verdict, but the results are satisfactory for us. It is obvious that the TRS has failed the people of Telangana."
K Yerran Naidu, TDP's leader in Parliament, said that the results indicate that the TDP will storm back to power next year. "The people have supported us because of our past record of good governance," he said.
The Congress on the other hand was in high spirits. The party's chief whip in the state assembly Kiran Kumar Reddy said that the bypoll results were clear indication that the Congress will return to power in the state for another term.
"We will win with a greater majority than last time. I don't have any doubt about it," Reddy said.
"This is clear that TRS could win 26 seats in 2004 because of our support," said the state Congress president D Srinivas.
The TRS on the other hand was in a glum mood as party leaders were trying to come to the terms with the new reality that the party was no more favourite of the Telangana people.
"We can talk about the causes of the defeat of the party in some constituencies only after detailed analysis of the results," said Harish Rao, nephew of K Chandrasekhara Rao.
"But the forces inimical to Telangana will be mistaken if they think that the sentiment for Telangana state had weakened," he added.