TRS Wins Warangal By-Election By Record Margin

The verdict in the Warangal Lok Sabha by-election is out, and the people of the constituency have delivered a massive mandate to the ruling TRS' candidate Pasunuri Dayakar, and a crushing defeat to the Congress nominee and former Union Minister Sarve Satyanarayana and the BJP-TDP combine candidate Pagidipati Devaiah.

The TRS candidate secured 6,08,431 votes and a record majority of 4,53,445 votes.

Dayakar's majority surpassed the 3,92,574-vote margin secured by Kadiam Srihari, the TRS candidate in the 2014 general election from the same constituency, who had resigned from the seat following his appointment as Deputy Chief Minister in the KCR Cabinet.

Though the Opposition Congress and the BJP-TDP combine made every possible effort to show that there was going to be very tough fight and that they were going to defeat the ruling TRS candidate, it was known that the TRS candidate was sure to win, and the question was only the possible majority he would get.

The TRS leaders including the Chief Minister KCR were certain about the victory of their candidate, but perhaps even they did not foresee such a massive margin.

The result shows that not only is the Telangana sentiment strong, the people of the State have a high degree of faith in the leadership of the Chief Minister KCR, against whom the Opposition leaders have leveled a series of charges, including that he had failed on all fronts to live up to the expectations of the people.

The scale of defeat for the Congress and the BJP-TDP combine is stunning and mind-boggling. The candidates of these two parties, as also the other contestants in the field, lost their deposits.

The Congress nominee had, during his electioneering, asserted that his victory was a certainty and that it would be the beginning of the downfall of KCR. The Congress, BJP and TDP leaders had launched a vituperative campaign against the TRS government, and stating that the people were already disillusioned with KCR's governance and were only waiting for an opportunity to give went to their anger against the government. The result proves otherwise.

It may be noted here that the TRS government, during its 16-month regime so far, took various decisions which benefited many sections of the people, apart from overcoming the power shortage crisis within a short period. Lakhs of government employees and pensioners were happy with their pay fixation, pensions were being given to larger number of people, a few lakh auto-rickshaw drivers throughout the State were happy that the tax was done away with, poultry farmers were a content lot as the electricity tariff for poultry units was reduced, youngsters were satisfied that the government had started the recruitment drive to some posts and there was hope of more recruitment in the future, students were happy that all fees were waived for Intermediate education and the government had promised free education from KG to PG from the coming academic year, Mission Kakatiya was being implemented and lakes and tanks were being restored raising hopes among the farmers, the free two-bedroom houses program was launched and houses were given to hundreds of people in Hyderabad as a beginning, and several irrigation projects were being implemented.

The Opposition parties failed to take note of these facts, and on the contrary, tried to find loopholes and corruption in whatever program the government had launched. There was also a feeling among the people of the State that the rulers of the neighboring State were creating hurdles in the development of Telangana and that the TDP leaders of this region were not opening their mouths on these issues, afraid of their leader Chandrababu Naidu.

People were also of the opinion that Naidu was behind the Revanth Reddy episode and that it was aimed at embarrassing KCR and the TRS leadership.

There was also a feeling that the BJP, which is in power at the Centre, was neglecting Telangana and adopting a step-motherly attitude towards it.

All of these factors contributed to the massive mandate in favour of the TRS and ignominious defeat for the Opposition parties.