Telangana 2018: TRS Retains ‘Fiefdom’, While Congress Alliance Falls Flat; Owaisis Remain Fringe Players

1.15 PM: It’s a wrap, folks.

Going against the grain of Lagadapati's survey, TRS has won Telangana Assembly Elections with an overwhelming majority. As of 1:04 PM, the party has gained a lead in more than 91 seats out of the total 119 constituencies that are going for polls. Despite facing a collective threat from the coalition led by the Indian National Congress, TRS has emerged victorious in a grander fashion than what it secured as a margin in the 2014 elections, as soon as the new state was born.

Previously, the Congress managed to win 22 seats in the 2014 elections. The current trends point out that the Mahakutami is still trailing behind at 18 seats that the Congress has a lead in, followed by its ally TDP with 2 seats. Telangana Jana Samiti and CPI, which are allies in the Mahakutami, are yet to open their account. BJP has suffered significant losses as its tally has been fluctuating anywhere between 0 and 5.

Meanwhile, Congress state chief Uttam Kumar Reddy has alleged tampering of EVMs, and said there needs to be a count of VVPAT slips to verify the results. AIMIM, on the other hand, has been leading in over five seats, out of the eight it is contesting from.

12.46 AM: TRS candidate from Siddipet, Harish Rao, has won by a lead of over a lakh votes and still counting. He has set the record as the youngest politician in the country to win six times as MLA.

12:40 PM: DU Assistant professor and Dalit columnist Abhinav Prakash lauds BSP performance

Game’s not yet over, but Grand Alliance a failure in Telangana, says Rajnath Singh

Telangana state Congress president is not very happy. Here’s what he said.

11:37 AM: Times of India has reported that Wardhannapet TRS candidate A Ramesh has secured the win from the constituency.

The party's candidate in Uppal, Subash Reddy is leading. TRS has managed to maintain the lead in most of the seats in Hyderabad and other subsequent urban constituencies. Meanwhile, BJP has reduced its lead to two seats in Hyderabad. Suhasini of TDP, NTR's granddaughter, is trailing by 12,000 votes.

11:22 AM: TRS bags Hyderabad Cantonment Assembly Constituency

It will be represented by G Sayanna, says First Post

11.15 AM: BJP's Raja Singh, who was earlier leading in Goshamahal constituency, is now trailing behind TRS's Prem Singh Rathore. Uttam Kumar Reddy, Telangana Congress president, who had been trailing in Huzurnagar, is now leading at a snail's pace.

First Post has reported that KT Rama Rao (KTR) is leading by a margin of 39,000 votes in Sirsilla. TRS chief and caretaker chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao is leading by 9,212 votes in Gajwel.

This is how some prominent Telangana leaders reacted to the polls:

10.35 AM: First Post reported that G Kishan Reddy, BJP Telangana president, is leading in Amberpet and BJP MLA Raja Singh is leading in Goshamahal constituency. In Charminar, AIMIM heavyweight Mumtaz Ahmed Khan is leading. Furthermore, in Mahabubnagar, TRS has gained a lead in all 14 constituencies, Times of India reported.

10.25 AM: Telangana preliminary tally suggests that the TRS is leading by a massive margin across 91 seats, followed by the Mahakutami in 16 seats. This is a historic low for the alliance, given that the Congress alone had secured 21 seats in the 2014 Assembly Elections in the state. This time, the alliance also includes giants like the Telugu Desam Party. (Source: TV 9 Telugu)

10.25 AM: TRS secures its first seat in Jagtial, says First Post.

Jeevan Reddy (INC) has been defeated by Sanjay Reddy of the TRS.

10.24 AM: All Congress heavyweights are trailing.

DK Aruna in Gadwal, Jeevan Reddy in Jagtial and Revanth Reddy in Kodangal are all trailing. Uttam Kumar Reddy in Huzurnagar is the only one who is leading. (Source: Firstpost)

10.14 AM: AIMIM draws first blood.

Brother of AIMIM supremo, Akbaruddin Owaisi, wins for the fourth time from his stronghold of Chandrayangutta.

10.01 AM: AIMIM's Akbaruddin Owaisi wins from Chandrayangutta Assembly Constituency. Congress's former deputy chief minister Damodar Rajanarsimha is trailing behind TRS's Kranti Kiran, who happens to be a prominent journalist. Telangana Jana Samithi, the new party launched in 2018 by N Kodandaram has failed to open its account and is trailing in all its eight constituencies. CPI is trailing in 3 seats. Congress, despite having a larger alliance, has failed to even retain what it could from the numbers of 2014. TRS leads with a comfortable majority of 89 seats, followed by Mahakutami's 16 seats, which fell from 28. AIMIM leads in 5 seats and BJP in 4, according to TOI and India Today.

09.59 AM: MIM leading in multiple constituencies of Hyderabad including Chandrayangutta where Akbar Owaisi is contesting. Other seats where they are leading include Malakpet, Bahadurpura and Charminar.

9:55 AM: Continuing the downturn trend of yesterday's trading session, both the Indian benchmark indices are trading below par. While BSE's Sensex has fallen 500 points, NSE's Nifty stands below 10,400. Rupee has also lost 1.5 per cent of its value today.

9:52 AM: Congress' Damodar Rajanarsimha, the former deputy chief minister, trails in Andole. Malareddy Ranga of SP Party leading in Ibrahimpatnam.

09.23 AM: Congress’ Jana Reddy trails in Nagarjunasagar. TRS Minister A Indrakaran Reddy has gained leads in Nirmal. Mahakutami has been leading in seats such as Nalgonda and Rangareddy. On the other hand, TRS is leading in Warangal and Medak. In Maheswaram, Congress is leading (Source: ToI). So far, in Telangana, TRS is leading in 57 seats, followed by Congress+ in 26 seats, BJP in 2 seats and AIMIM across 3 seats, says India Today.

09.15 AM: G. Kishan Reddy is leading from Amberpet. If he manages to hold the lead, this will be his fourth consecutive win from the constituency.

Yesterday: The stock markets ended in a rout yesterday (10 December 2018) with BSE’s Sensex down by 713 points and NSE's Nifty losing 205.25 points. Yesterday's trading session was the first one after the exit polls began doing the media rounds on Friday. Many of them have either predicted a loss or a close finish for the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) in the three major states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh.

9 AM: NDTV now shows a clear lead for TRS, which is leading Congress-TDP alliance by 53-17.

08. 57 AM: TRS leading in 25, Mahakutami in 4 and BJP in 1. (Source: News18)

08.56 AM: TRS has established a voting percentage of 1.7 per cent. BJP has gained 0.8 per cent votes. Caretaker CM K Chandrasekhara Rao is leading in Gajwel constituency. TRS Minister Padma Rao is leading in Secunderabad; TRS’s Harish Rao is leading by 6,000 votes in Siddipet after the first round; K T Rama Rao, the son of KCR, is leading in Sircilla, according to Times of India and TV9 Telugu.

08.50 AM: In 2014, at least 10 seats in Telangana including Andole, Mahbubnagar, Malkajgiri, Nakrekal and Ramagundam were won by the TRS with a very low margin, with the least being 1 per cent. The Mahakutami poses a serious threat in these states.

08.43 AM: The vote share in 2014 for the TRS was 34.3 per cent. If the Congress and the TDP had come together as the Mahakutami in 2014, then their collective vote share would have been above 40 per cent.  In Thungathurthy, TRS has been leading. Sudhir Reddy of Congress has established lead in LB Nagar. BJP is said to have gained lead in one constituency. (Source: ToI, TV 9 Telugu)

08.34 AM: In latest updates from Telangana Assembly Elections, TRS has made significant gains by establishing a lead in over 10 seats. The Indian National Congress on the other hand has a lead in 3 constituencies. TRS is reported to be leading from Sircilla constituency, and in Maktal, they are leading by 117 votes.

08:00 AM IST: Elections to the 119 seats of Telangana were held in the year 2014 and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) formed the first government in the state with 34.3 per cent of the vote share.

There are 10 major political belts in Telangana with Hyderabad having the largest number of constituencies. The election in 2019 gets more interesting because the TDP, Congress and the Left have come together to form the Mahakutami (grand alliance) to counter the TRS. If the Mahakutami had contested the elections in 2014, then their collective vote share would be more than 40 per cent, which would have been higher than the TRS. Moreover, a number of constituencies which the TRS managed to win on a very narrow margin would be very different if they had faced a united opposition.

The other interesting facet of the Telangana elections is the massive defection of Congress and TDP candidates to the TRS. By the time the assembly was dissolved, the seat count of TRS had increased from 63 to 90 which amounts to a three-fourth majority in the assembly.

As Telangana voted in 2018, the issues at the forefront were:

· Unfulfilled promises made during the Telangana statehood struggle

· Popular schemes of the TRS including Ryuthu Bandhu, provision of 2BHK houses, pension scheme.

· Reservation for Muslims.