TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao
The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi has made a clean sweep of rural local body elections in Telangana, securing majority in all district-level bodies.
The TRS was way ahead of main opposition Congress in the elections to Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs) and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) as the counting of votes was taken up on Tuesday.
The ruling party was on its way to capture power in district-level bodies in all 32 districts where the elections were held in three phases last month.
The results available around midnight show TRS bagged 372 out of 534 ZPTC seats while the main opposition Congress won 53 seats. BJP was a distant third with just six seats. Left parties won a single seat while four independents were also elected.
TRS made a clean sweep in ZPTC elections in four districts and won a majority of seats in other districts.
TRS also demonstrated its strength in MPTC elections. Out of 5,816 MPTC seats, TRS has won 3,556 seats while Congress finished second with 1,377 seats. BJP bagged 211, the Left parties 78 and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) got 21 seats. Others won 572 seats.
However, TRS suffered surprise defeats in Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao's adopted village and his daughter K. Kavitha's own village.
The TRS candidate was defeated in Chinna Mulkanoor village in Karimnagar district, which was adopted by Chandrashekhar Rao in 2016.
In Nizamabad district too, the TRS was defeated in Pothangal village of Chandrashekhar Rao's daughter K. Kavitha. It was another setback for Kavitha who was herself defeated in the recent Lok Sabha elections in Nizamabad constituency.
Kavitha is enrolled as a voter in Pothangal, which is the village of her in-laws. The TRS candidate in MPTC election lost to his BJP rival.
All the elected MPTCs will chose Mandal Parishad presidents while elected ZPTCs will elect Zilla Parishad chairpersons. Elections for Mandal Parishad presidents will be held on June 7 while Zilla Parishad chairpersons will be elected the next day.
There was celebrations in the camp of TRS, which retained power in the state with a landslide majority in Assembly elections in December last year. However, the party suffered a setback in Lok Sabha polls with BJP and Congress winning four and three seats, respectively. Though TRS won nine seats, it failed to achieve its objective of a clean sweep.
TRS working president K. T. Rama Rao described the party's victory in MPTC and ZPTC elections as historic. He said it was a matter of pride for the party that it won almost all ZPTC seats in all the districts.
