KCR-led TRS set to form government in Telangana with huge majority

Despite allegations of perpetuating "family rule", TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao (Gajwel), his son K T Rama Rao (Sircilla) and nephew T Harish Rao (Siddipet) have established comfortable lead over their rivals, as the party's gamble to go in for early elections seems to be paying off.

K Chandrasekhar Rao, chief of TRS. (PIC/Twitter account)

Hyderabad: The TRS on Tuesday looked set to form its second successive government in Telangana with a thumping majority, with party candidates winning two assembly seats and leading in 90 others, in a body blow to the Congress-led opposition alliance. The state has a 119-member assembly. The first two results have gone in favour of the TRS with its candidates M Sanjay Kumar and Sunke Ravishankar winning the Jagtial and Choppadandi seats. Despite allegations of perpetuating "family rule", TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao (Gajwel), his son K T Rama Rao (Sircilla) and nephew T Harish Rao (Siddipet) have established comfortable lead over their rivals, as the party's gamble to go in for early elections seems to be paying off. If the current trend continues, the TRS may end up with at least a two-thirds majority in the 119-member House. Congress candidates were leading in 16 seats and its ally TDP in two. BJP nominees were ahead of their rivals in two seats. The party had five members in the dissolved assembly. Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM, which K Chandrasekhar Rao calls a "friendly party", is leading in five places and others in two. The Congress has, meanwhile, said it suspected "manipulation" of the EVMs, and demanded that all votes be counted using the VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) to ascertain the exact number of votes polled by each candidate. "Going by the distorted trends, there is a strong suspicion that EVM machines have been manipulated. We demand that 100 percent counting of VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) must be taken up in all constituencies. "All Congress candidates should submit letters to their returning officers demanding counting of VVPAT paper trails," a communication from the Congress quoted state party president N Uttam Kumar Reddy as saying. With defeat staring the opposition alliance in the face, CPI general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy alleged: "Huge distribution of money, particulary on the last day (before the election)...purchasing the votes..this must have resulted in this victory for TRS." Claiming that the elections were not free and fair, Reddy said it was not a moral but only "technical" victory for the TRS. Senior TDP leader Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy said the factors leading to the drubbing needed to be analysed. "We were expecting to get more seats. The results are not to our expectations. we have to analyse and introspect where it went wrong, and we have to work together," Reddy told PTI, adding people's verdict needed to be respected. The Congress had forged an pre-poll opposition alliance with the TDP, Telangana Jana Samiti and the CPI.