Meanwhile, Chandrashekar Rao called on Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Sunday evening and handed over his resignation.
Telangana Congress President A Revanth Reddy in a victory rally post Congress win in Telangana.
When the results of the Telangana Assembly elections 2023 were declared on Sunday, 3 December, the Congress ripped through incumbent Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s — KCR — BRS like a powerful hurricane, breaking its vice-like grip on the state since its birth in 2014.
In the process, it also demolished his dream of rising as a national leader and playing a crucial role in the formation of the next Union government after the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. And also lay shattered party working president and IT Minister KT Rama Rao’s — KTR — dream of getting into his father KCR’s shoes.
It was also a personal blow to KCR, the tallest leader of the Telangana movement.
While he was leading comfortably in his home constituency of Gajwel at the time of writing this report, he lost in Kamareddy to his BJP rival K Venkata Ramana Reddy. The Congress party’s state unit chief A Revanth Reddy, who had thrown his hat in the ring in Kamareddy to take on KCR, came in third in a tight contest.
The Congress was winning or leading in 65 seats, while BRS was ahead in 39 seats at the time of writing this report. The BJP was winning or leading in eight seats and the AIMIM had won or was ahead in its usual seven seats.
Meanwhile, KCR sent his resignation letter through his Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Sunday evening.
For the Congress, Telangana was the only reason to cheer as it lost two states — Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan — to the BJP, and failed to dislodge the saffron party in Madhya Pradesh.
The Congress, led by A Revanth Reddy, had managed to put up a facade of unity, despite the fact that its leaders had serious differences among themselves. It was as though the party had shed its old clothes and donned new ones. It bid goodbye to the practice of changing chief ministers too frequently.
Its leaders indulging in internecine quarrels have become a thing of the past. For a change, they all focused on their energy in exposing KCR and his government.
An upbeat state party unit president A Revanth Reddy, the frontrunner for chief ministership, said: “I thank people for saving democracy which was under threat in Telangana. We will definitely protect the civil rights of the people.”
He said the Congress paid tribute to the youngsters, particularly Srikantha Chary who laid down their lives in the movement for Telangana state.
He urged the BRS to help the Congress in delivering a government that would be appreciated people.
“Let us usher in new values in public life. Pragati Bhavan will become Praja Bhavan. People will be allowed inside. It is people’s property. We will be dedicated to the people,” he said.
After it became clear that the BRS had lost the election, party working president and minister KTR said in a message on X: “Grateful to the people of Telangana for giving @BRSparty two consecutive terms of Government. Not saddened over the result today, but surely disappointed as it was not in expected lines for us. But we will take this in our stride as a learning and will bounce back Congratulations to Congress party on winning the mandate. Wishing you Good Luck.”
Grateful to the people of Telangana for giving @BRSparty two consecutive terms of Government 🙏
Not saddened over the result today, but surely disappointed as it was not in expected lines for us. But we will take this in our stride as a learning and will bounce back…
— KTR (@KTRBRS) December 3, 2023
Jai KCR !! Jai BRS !!
Dear BRS family, thank you for all the hardwork !!
Special thanks to all the social media warriors for the fight you put up !!
Let us not forget.. with or without power we are servants of Telangana People. Let us all spiritedly work for our MotherLand.…
— Kavitha Kalvakuntla (@RaoKavitha) December 3, 2023
One factor that helped the Congress was the campaign that Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, and party national chief Mallikarjun Kharge led in the state closer to the day of the election, kindling the Indira Gandhi sentiment to connect with the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCs/STs).
The party flaunted six guarantees to attract the other sections including the youth and women.
All important leaders sailed through with comfortable margins, including:
Uttam Kumar Reddy broke down after the Congress won the election while Vikramarka said he would not mind accepting the responsibility of serving as the chief minister if the party asked him.
Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, which went through Telangana late last year, also raised the awareness levels among the people on the new look the Congress has acquired.
The yatra made him more acceptable in several states including Telangana. Later the party’s unexpected and sensational victory in Karnataka brought a fundamental change in their perception of the Congress.
They appeared to have veered to the conclusion that the Congress was the right horse to bet on.
The verdict was proof that democracy has the necessary resilience to correct itself if it is about to go off the guardrails. It was also an expression of the people’s anger at the “arrogance” of legislators of the ruling party in their second term.
Many of them are alleged to have not bothered about the people. They were, instead, busy with their real estate businesses and ugly show of wealth, an attribute that the nouveau riche always has. At one point in time, KCR himself cautioned his MLAs against becoming rude, arrogant and corrupt.
He had said: “I do not know why, one, soon after becoming an MLA, begins to think he is superior to others. The first change is black goggles appear on their faces. Why all these supercilious pretences?”
Telangana people had shown that they value their self-respect more, a trait that has bene built into thier DNA, probably because of suffering under the Nizams and their representatives in villages who were known as doras for generations.
What helped the Congress was KCR’s decision to renominate all the sitting MLAs barring seven. Though the surveys had pointed out that the people were unhappy with about 40 of them, KCR fielded them nonetheless.
He was probably afraid that their exclusion might lead to them staying in the fray as rebels. The BRS campaign that the people should vote for it, if the state should journey from good to great, did not cut any ice with them.
The spread of the Congress was like wildfire but it remained subterranean. The stealth with which it spread did not even let the seasoned politician — KCR — know what was happening until it was too late.
It appeared as though the people had assembled at one place a day ahead of polling and decided to resurrect the Congress.
The party’s rise from the history’s dustbin was as spectacular as it was timely. It devoured the unassailable winning margins of the BRS MLAs in 2018 with effortless ease which hitherto was thought impossible.
The fall of KCR woke up memories of how Chandrababu Naidu went down in 2004 in the undivided Andhra Pradesh and again in 2019 in the reorganised state of Andhra Pradesh.
The winning streak of the Congress did not stop or slow down in a majority of the constituencies after the counting began.
It crushed the ruling MLAs, who were under the illusion that KCR would get them through in the election. The sound of their fall to the ground one after the other came in metronymic rhythm was music to the ears of Congress nominees who have been waiting for about a decade for deliverance from their political exile.
The fall of the mighty of the BRS was the hardest. First on the list was KCR himself in Kamareddy, as he was pushed to third place.
He won from Gajwel, thanks to the presence of BJP’s Eatala Rajender in the fray who may have taken away votes that should have gone to the Congress rather than KCR’s votes.
Though KTR won from Sircilla, it was no solace with the party having lost the election.
The humiliation KCR had suffered unnerved the party workers so much so that the gates of Telangana Bhavan remained closed on Sunday with not even a soul anywhere near it.
It looked as though the party office was wailing silently. The storm also sent out a message to the BRS leadership that it had allowed Minister T Harish Rao a huge victory margin, because he is a people’s legislator, who is always in their midst, attending to their needs.
But Several ministers bit the dust, including Singreddy Niranjan Reddy, Puvvada Ajay Kumar, Koppula Eeswar, A Indrakaran Reddy, and Errabilli Dayakar Rao.
The power of the Congress cyclone is hard not to notice. In north Telangana where BRS MLAs had won in the 2018 elections with huge margins bit the dust in this election.
The Congress candidates not only erased the 2018 winning margins of the ruling MLAs and on top of them, piled up votes in the range of 10,000 to 20,000.
It only showed how much the people had craved for change. They were tired of the BRS despite the fact it had handed them the benefits of several welfare schemes as no other government did. It appeared they wanted to experience the thrill of a fresh breeze.
Though exit polls and opinion polls had suggested that a majority of the people favoured KCR as the chief minister, they did not want the BRS.
Though it is a contradiction in terms, it however showed how good KCR was and how bad the BRS had been. The MLAs and ministers, who act as the BRS government’s representatives had become the tormentors of the people.
It has become more or less established that people wait for 10 years to get rid of a party. For instance, take Chandrababu Naidu.
He lost the election in 2004 after serving two terms. The Congress which came to power in 2004 lost it in 2014 to BRS after the creation of Telangana.
Now the BRS is demitting office after two terms, making way for the Congress. More than the six guarantees of the Congress, the anti-incumbency and voter fatigue did the BRS in.
Though the state had been implementing welfare schemes for almost every section of society, yet the people had voted against the BRS.
The schemes like Dalit Bandhu and double-bedroom houses acted like a double-edged sword. If some were happy, many more of those who did not get them were angry and appeared to have taken it out on the BRS at the hustings.
The unemployment factor was another serious issue that had worked against KCR since the promise of providing jobs was the cornerstone of the Telangana movement.
The leakage of question papers of the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) exams and raging unemployment distanced the youth from the ruling party.
The farmers were happy with Rythu Bandhu but were unhappy with the government for not delivering on its promise of waiving crop loans up to ₹1 lakh.
For the Congress, was redemption from its sins of not being able to seize power immediately after Sonia Gandhi gifted Telangana in 2014.
The party leaders including Sonia Gandhi appeared very naive to the promise of KCR that he would merge his party in the Congress in return for bifurcation of the state and when he went back on his promise, the party cried foul.
The party took the initiative of capitalising on the creation of Telangana state into KCR’s hands. He managed to convince the people that it was he who had forced the Centre to create Telangana state.
True to the saying that once an imitative is lost, it is very difficult to regain it. In 2018, though green shoots appeared in the Congress, KCR could attain an upper hand and steamroll to power.
He exploited the anti-Andhra people soon after the Congress decided to join hands with the TDP.
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