The GHMC election saw TRS win 55 seats, BJP 48, AIMIM 44, and Congress 2.
It was a municipal election like never before, with the two-week campaign witnessing color, spectacle, and rhetoric reserved for state and national elections. At the height of its electoral victory in the Dubbaka by-elections, the BJP hoped to continue its winning streak in Telangana with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls.
Sparing no effort in their campaign, parachuting a number of national leaders, including Interior Minister Amit Shah and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, among others, the BJP, although unable to emerge victorious, has been a big spoiler for the ruler TRS.
At the end of the bitter and extremely polarizing campaign, the TRS led by K Chandrasekhar Rao fell short of the numbers to claim the mayor’s seat on their own. Of the 99 seats it won in 2016, TRS was reduced to 55 of the 150 corporate elected.
The campaign for the TRS in the election of the corporation was led by the Minister of Municipal Administration and Urban Development, KT Rama Rao.
Speaking after the results, Minister KTR said: “The result is not as expected. We thought we would get at least 20 to 25 more seats. Even exit polls had predicted the same. We lost the seat of the BN Reddy colony by only 18 votes. In about 10 to 12 seats, we lost by less than 100 to 200 votes. We will discuss and analyze the results. “
TRS’s loss was clearly the BJP’s gain. His aggressive and polarizing campaign with anti-Muslim rhetoric helped the national party make significant strides, as it went from winning four seats in the 2016 GHMC polls to xxx now.
According to the final results of the elections, TRS won 55 seats, BJP 48, AIMIM 44 and Congress 2.
In the previous elections, held in 2016, the TRS had made a clean sweep by winning 99 seats, AIMM emerged in second place with 44 seats, the BJP won 4 while the Congress won 2 and the TDP one. Neredmet’s seat could not be counted as a controversy over vote validation was contested by the BJP in High Court.
|
Zone |
No. of rooms |
TRS |
Bjp |
AIMIM |
Congress |
|
Charminar |
36 |
0 |
7 |
29 |
– |
|
Khairatabad |
27 |
5 |
9 |
13 |
– |
|
Kukatpally |
22 |
twenty |
2 |
– |
0 |
|
LB Nagar |
2. 3 |
6 |
fifteen |
0 |
2 |
|
Secunderabad |
27 |
eleven |
14 |
1 |
– |
|
Serilingampally |
fifteen |
13 |
1 |
1 |
– |
|
Total |
150 |
55 |
48 |
44 |
2 |
As expected, AIMIM retained most of its divisions and surprisingly won two seats from Goshamahal and Dattatreya Nagar, which are considered strongholds of the BJP. Goshamahal is the Assembly constituency of the controversial BJP MLA Raja Singh.
The GHMC electoral contest was primarily between the ruling TRS party and the BJP. Congress put on another poor show by placing a distant fourth in the contest.
Congress faces another concern as former Chevella MP Konda Vishweshwar indicated that he would join the BJP while the vote count was taking place. “The postal ballots reflect the opinion of the employees and the elders. Two things are clear. 1) The general public is against TRS 2) They believe that only BJP can take on TRS at GHMC, not in Congress ”he tweeted.
Various news reports had previously speculated that the deputy who had joined Congress in 2018 would go to the BJP.
The GHMC election held a central place in national politics, as the BJP left no stone unturned to win the mayoral seat by defeating Union ministers such as Amit Shah, Prakash Javadekar and Smriti Irani. BJP National Chairman JP Nadda, Karnataka MP Tejasvi Surya, and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also participated in the campaign. Even Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister, Yogi Adiyanath, campaigned in Hyderabad to appeal primarily to Hindu voters.
During their visit, Tejasvi Surya and Yogi Adityanath caused a controversy when they tried to change the name of Hyderabad to ‘Bhagyanagar’. While the BJP made religious polarization its main pillar in winning the GHMC elections, the TRS sidestepped it and campaigned under the slogan of “decisive versus divisive politics.”
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