As voters turned up at the polling stations, the political parties appeared to be on the razor's edge, not knowing who they were backing.
KTR, his wife after casting votes.
On Thursday, 30 November, the people of Telangana cast their ballots — though not as enthusiastically as expected, with the polling figure hovering at around 64 percent at 6 pm.
Their votes will nevertheless decide whether BRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao gets a third term in office — a record no other South Indian politician has achieved. Or whether the Congress party’s decade-long wait for political redemption will end.
Still the popular choice for chief ministership by a wide margin, according to the South First–Peoples Pulse Pre-poll Survey, KCR was weighed down by the shoddy delivery of some of his much-touted welfare schemes, as well as sheer fatigue among voters, who simply wanted change.
He was himself locked in gladiatorial contests with two arch-rivals — A Revanth Reddy of the Congress and Eatala Rajender of the BJP — in Kamareddy and his home constituency of Gajwel, respectively.
That people were wondering about the outcome of these contests was perhaps the best comment on the travails of his BRS party.
Then there was the BJP. The saffron party has been seeding the ground in Telangana in the hope of reaping benefits in the Lok Sabha election next year, which is its immediate concern. The result will also be a test for its larger goal of making inroads into a hitherto hostile South.
Not lacking in bluster, the BRS has asserted it will return to power with 80+ seats. A newly resurgent Congress is quietly confident of touching — and crossing — the halfway mark of 60 in the 119-member Assembly. Pre-poll surveys, including the one by South First, back this number.
As does the South First–Peoples Pulse Exit Poll, which gives the Congress a clear majority in Telangana.
But exit polls are not exact polls. When the ballots are tallied on 3 December, all will be clear. Whether KCR still has enough residual goodwill as the torchbearer of the Telangana movement to single-handedly bring his party back to power, or whether the confidence of the Congress is justified.
And also whether the polls and pollsters were right in assessing the mood of the people of Telangana.
No election in the recent past has roused as much interest as the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections did.
As voters turned up at the polling stations across the state, the major political parties in the state — the BRS, the BJP, the Congress, and the AIMIM — appeared to be on the razor’s edge, not knowing who they were backing.
They underwent tormenting experiences, sometimes with their hopes rising sky high and immediately clouds of depression swamping them as the election appeared to be going down to the wire.
At about 6 pm, polling in the state was about 64 percent. As there were still voters waiting for their turn to cast their votes the figure might reach close to 70 percent.
This figure would, however, still be lower than the over 73 percent turnout seen in the 2018 Assembly election, when the BRS won 88 seats..
Polling was by and large peaceful barring stray incidents of the BRS, Congress, and at times BJP workers resorting to verbal exchanges and sometimes fisticuffs. The police forces deployed at full strength tackled the clashing supporters easily.
All eyes are riveted on the polling trends in Gajwel and Kamareddy. In Gajwel, Telangana Chief Minister KCR is grappling with his one-time Cabinet college and now BJP nominee Eatala Rajender, and in Kamareddy with is his arch enemy and Congress state president Revanth Reddy, who has been thirsting for revenge against KCR for sending him to jail in the infamous cash for vote scam in 2015.
The fierce campaigning for more than a month and the despicable depths to which campaigning plummeted had proved that the election was a high-stakes game for Congress and the BRS. The Congress fought its last-ditch battle as its very existence would be in doubt if it lost the election, which would be its third successive disaster
For the BRS, winning the election is important, as it would lay the foundation for KCR to emerge at the national level and for KTR it might open the doors to the chief minister’s chamber. This apart, after being in the saddle for nearly 10 years, the party appears not interested in coming out of the spell that absolute power casts.
For the Congress, victory at the hustings would help in creating a “mahol” that the party’s fortunes were on the rise. If its performance in other states, which went to polls in the present spell, too, is better, it would help the party lay the road to power at the Centre.
Though KCR had not made any comment on the polling day after casting his vote along with his wife Shobha Rao at his native village of Chintamadaka in erstwhile Medak District, his minister-son KTR, the most visible of all BRS leaders, used X to send out a message that the voters should exercise their franchise to lay the foundation stone for the progress of Telangana.
In a message on X, KTR, while refraining from asking the voters to support the BRS, however, asked them to lay the road for Telangana’s glorious future.
“Your vote should fill the lives of the farmers with light. Your vote should lay the foundation for the state’s growth which is already on a fast track,” he said in the Telugu post.
He also inquired about the polling trends with officials at the polling station and chatted up the voters who had queued up. He steered clear of asking them to support the BRS. He appealed to all of them to cast their votes in the interest of democracy.
Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay, however, attacked the BRS and the Congress immediately after casting his vote along with his family members.
He said: “I request all the people to exercise their franchise. The youths, workers of the party, and all others should take part in the election. The BRS and the Congress are resorting to a smear campaign against me. They did not have the guts to face me on a political plane and were instead sending threats. They want to win the elections through backdoor methods, but it is not going to happen.”
Union Minister and state BJP chief G Kishan Reddy, too, had an appeal: “People should exercise their right to vote. I appeal to them to fulfil their responsibility. I want to tell them that today is the chance to choose your government. They should look at the candidate or party, not be lured by liquor and other things.”
Referring to the BJP prospects, he said his party would not need MLAs from other parties to form a government. “We will form the government on our own in the state. We will get a majority.”
Congress state chief Revanth Reddy, after exercising his franchise, said that “car” — the BRS symbol — was going to the garage under the relentless pounding of the grand old party.
He said Indiramma Rajyam was all set to take over and dispel darkness in the lives of the people.
“We will form the government with a 2/3 majority,” he said. He parried questions from reporters on whether he was the front-runner for the post of chief minister.
He said at the moment he is fighting the election for the party.
“The captain is appointed after the team is in place. There will be CLP [Congress Legislature Party] which would be asked to elect its leader. But the Congress is going to assume power in the state. I am requesting all of you to come to LB stadium at 10.30 am to witness the ceremony. Later in the evening, we can have high tea,” he said, in reply to a question from a media person.
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi was also careful in not making any appeal for support to the AIMIM.
He said. “I request the people to take part in the election process. You have repose faith in the Constitution and strengthen democracy. “People should vote to preserve communal harmony. I wish polling percentage picks up in urban areas including Hyderabad,” he said.
The entire tinsel world was present at various polling booths imparting glitz to the event. For them, it probably was a unique experience to queue up in line as they cannot be kept waiting whatever the occasion. They included Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Jr NTR, Allu Arjun, and Mahesh Babu.
Interestingly, woman independent candidate Barrelakka alias Karne Sirisha in the Kollapur constituency became a special attraction with a tidal wave of support coming her away. After her brother was beaten up by her rivals, she intensified her campaign against the BRS dispensation for not filling government vacancies, which captured the imagination of the youth.
The wave of support in her favour also pointed to the raging unemployment problem and how the youth remained a frustrated lot, notwithstanding the statements of the BRS top leaders of how they had addressed the problem and how they were going to fill the jobs by a job calendar after coming to power for the third time.
Even after the end of campaigning and the commencement of the silent period, the parties flooded the newspapers with advertisements flashing the salient features of their manifestoes.
Interestingly, Husnabad Congress candidate Ponnam Prabhakar performed pooja to an LPG cylinder as one of the promises in the manifesto-cum-six guarantees was the provision of cooking gas at ₹500 per cylinder.
There were also inevitable poll code violations. A case has been registered against Forest Minister A Indrakaran Reddy for entering the polling station wearing the BRS Kanduva — a muffler-like cloth around his neck. There were also allegations that K Kavitha made a clear appeal to the people to vote for BRS.
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