The vociferous Bharatiya Janata Party campaign against the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen, instead of marring its poll prospect, severely damaged the ruling Telangana Rashtriya Samiti in the election for 150 wards Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
However, the TRS of chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao still managed to emerge as the single largest party winning 55 wards against 99 last time—thus losing 44. The BJP’s tally increased by the same number, that is from four to 48. The figure 44 continues to play prank as the AIMIM won exactly the same number of seats. In the last election too, it had captured 44 wards, thus managing to retain its position.
But unlike in the past it is the BJP, which has emerged as the number two party. So far, results of 149 out of 150 wards have been announced.
Initial reports on Friday morning had suggested that the BJP would get the majority on its own. But gradually the TRS and AIMIM improved their position. The Congress could get only two seats.
Though the saffron party improved its tally by 12-fold yet it was expected that it would get even larger number of seats as it had launched a very aggressive campaign, especially against the AIMIM.
The BJP strategists were perhaps knowing that they may not damage the AIMIM much, as it had contested in only 51 seats in its stronghold, the plan was to cut to size the TRS. This would not have been possible without polarizing the votes. Thus, the party sent almost all the top leaders, from Home Minister Amit Shah to UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Smriti Irani.
The good performance of the BJP has come as a wake-up call for the TRS and even AIMIM.
