The massive consolidation of vote share for Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in 2018 Assembly elections is apparent in constituencies where the parties had scraped through with wafer thin margins in 2014 polls.
In constituencies where the victory margin was under 5% in 2014, the TRS gained an upper hand in 2018. Of 25 constituencies where different parties won by under 5% margin in 2014, the TRS grabbed 18 seats in 2018.
In those constituencies, the Congress and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had won 14 seats between them in 2014. They won only five of these seats now, as the TRS candidates scooped up a big chunk of votes.
Change in fortunes
The victory margins give away the picture in clear terms. Dayaker Rao Errabelli won the Palakurthi constituency as a TDP candidate by a slender margin of 4,313 votes in 2014. But this time, contesting on a TRS ticket, he won with a margin of 53,053 votes. In 2014, J. Geeta Reddy of the Congress had won by just 842 votes. In this election, her rival Koninty Manik Rao of TRS won by a stunning 34,473 votes. Geeta Reddy had defeated Manik Rao in 2014.
In the city, G. Sayanna of TRS won the Secunderabad (Cantt) seat by 37,563 votes; the same seat he had barely won by 3,275 votes contesting on TDP ticket in 2014.
Candidates who managed to win in 2014 contesting on TDP and Congress tickets romped home with big numbers in 2018 contesting on TRS ticket. Among those contestants are Ramesh Chennamaneni from Vemulawada, Kale Yadaiah from Chevella (SC), S. Rajender Reddy from Narayanpet, Srinivas Goud from Mahbubnagar, Ajay Kumar Puvvada from Khammam, N. Bhaskar Rao from Miryalguda.
The exception
One of the exceptions was Sandra Venkata Veeraiah of TDP who won by 19,002 votes in 2018, as against 2,485 votes in 2014 elections. Incidentally, Veeraiah had been named in the cash-for-votes scam in MLC elections in Telangana in 2015.