Updated: November 21, 2020 7:16:38 am
Workers prepare a campaign vehicle for the BJP, ahead of the GHMC elections in Hyderabad. (PTI photo)
Elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation wwill take place on December 1. Civic elections are crucial for the ruling Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS), the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress.
There are 150 districts in total in the corporation, and this time the position of mayor is reserved for a woman.
What’s at stake for TRS?
While the TRS swept the Assembly elections in December 2018, in the parliamentary elections in April 2019, the ruling party lost four crucial Lok Sabha seats to the BJP, and another stronghold, Malkajgiri, to Congress. , which also won two other seats. . On November 10, in the Dubbaka Assembly by-elections, the ruling party, which had won the seat in 2018 by a large margin, lost to the BJP. Angered by the defeat at Dubbaka, the TRS brought forward the GHMC election, which was to be held in January, hoping to catch their rivals off guard.
Meanwhile, the party is also facing much criticism for its handling of the situation after heavy rains on October 13-14 flooded much of the areas under GHMC. People are blaming the municipal administration and the government for reacting late, and when they did, it was said that it was careless and inappropriate. Several residential neighborhoods remained flooded for several days and without essential supplies and potable water, as officials were unable to find enough pumps to remove the water.
In 2016, the TRS swept the GHMC elections winning 88 out of 150 seats, and its city councilors faced the ire of citizens stranded in the floodwaters. On October 19, the government announced a cash delivery of Rs 10,000 to affected families as immediate assistance. But the cash distribution was chaotic, and TRS corporations and leaders were accused of handing out compensation as if it were a gift from the party. After opposition parties accused the government of irregularities in the distribution of cash, including compensation to TRS sympathizers and unaffected individuals, the government decided to credit the money in the bank accounts of the beneficiaries who were required to register at the Centers Mee Seva. That became even more chaotic due to technical failures at the centers and the staff were overwhelmed by the rush of people. With the announcement of the elections on November 17, the model code of conduct came into force, forcing the government to halt the distribution of compensation, leaving thousands of people angry and disappointed.📣 Express Explained is now on Telegram
What opportunity does BJP see in the southern state?
For the BJP, which now has two MLAs and four MPs, the civic election is an opportunity to increase its presence in Hyderabad and gain more ground inside Telangana. Party leaders also want to show that it is not Congress but the BJP that is TRS’s main rival.
Apart from Karnataka, the BJP does not have much of a presence in the four southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where regional parties have strong control. By winning four seats in the Lok Sabha and two in the Assembly, the BJP sees an opening in Telangana. This is the reason why the party has delegated Bhupender Yadav, head of the Bihar elections, who helped the party win 72 seats there, to Hyderabad to design a plan for the GHMC elections. BJP leaders are highly optimistic that the party has replaced Congress as TRS’s archrival, and is set to become the main contender in the near future. The party intends to break the TRS-AIMIM alliance statewide by positioning itself as a trustworthy and development-oriented alternative, and the election of GHMC provides an opportunity to test that strategy and strength.
Party leaders point out that the victory in Dubbaka’s by-elections was no fluke and that disgruntled citizens were looking for another option other than Congress.
READ | GHMC polls: citizens remind parties of broken promises
How the BJP has increased its share of votes in Telangana between two Assembly elections
In the 2014 elections, the BJP had won five Assembly seats in Telangana. However, in the December 2018 Assembly elections, the TRS seized four seats and only T Raja Singh retained his seat. However, in four months, the BJP bounced back by winning three seats in Lok Sabha and retaining Secunderabad. The party increased its percentage of votes from 7.1% in the Assembly elections to 19.45 in the Lok Sabha elections. Party leaders attribute the increase in their vote share to disenchantment with TRS and the rise in popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The party has also adopted an aggressive door-to-door campaign to highlight core schemes. TRS’s alliance with AIMIM, which ensured that minority votes were in their kitty, has also alienated a section of Hindu voters who turned to the BJP.
The loss of Dubbaka bypoll to TRS and its context in the GHMC surveys
the loss in the seat of the Dubbaka assembly forced the ruling TRS to advance in the GHMC polls. The party wants to gauge the public’s mood in the middle of its second term and, depending on the results of the GHMC, it will correct the course. In the December 2018 elections, TRS’s Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy won Dubbaka’s seat with 89,999 votes, while his rivals in Congress and the BJP won 26,799 and 22,595 votes, respectively. Reddy got 54.36 percent of the vote. He passed away on August 6 of this year. TRS nominated his wife Sujatha Reddy for the by-elections. However, the BJP that nominated M. Raghunandan Rao, who had lost twice, carried out an aggressive campaign, promising development and better implementation of the schemes. Rao won by polling 63,352 votes, increasing his share of the vote from a mere 13.75 percent in December 2018 to 38.47 percent. Although it won by a margin of just 1,079 votes, it is this change in the percentage of votes that has forced TRS to call early GHMC elections to assess the government’s performance and popularity.
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