The BJP, which sprang a surprise with the victory of its candidate Bandi Sanjay Kumar from the Karimnagar Parliamentary constituency in the recent polls defeating heavyweights, including TRS candidate B. Vinod Kumar and TPCC working president Ponnam Prabhakar, had failed to win even a single seat in the just concluded Zilla Parishad (ZP) elections.
Total reversal
During the 2014 ZP polls, BJP had bagged one seat in integrated Karimnagar district. However, in this election, it scored a nought in the four bifurcated districts of Karimnagar, though it had won the Karimanagar Lok Sabha (LS) seat with a 89,508 votes lead.
In the LS elections, the BJP candidate had his sway in Karimnagar, Choppadandi, Manakondur and Vemulawada Assembly segments, by securing the highest majority. However, it was a total reversal in the ZP elections as the TRS had completely swept in all the Assembly segments of the integrated Karimnagar district, except in Vemulawada, Jagtial and Peddapalli segments. In the Vemulawada segment, Congress had won the Chandurthi ZPTC seat, in Jagtial the Bheerpur seat and Odela and Kalwa Srirampur in Peddapalli segment. Out of a total of 58 ZPTC seats, TRS had won 54 and the Congress four.
On the other hand, against a total of 653 MPTC seats in the integrated district, TRS had won 402, Congress 114, Independents 86, BJP 47, CPI three and TDP one seat. With TRS winning a majority of the MPTC seats, it is now confident of snatching all the MPPs in the indirect elections.
In Karimnagar ZP, TRS had won from all the 15 ZPTCs and also snatched the coveted ZP chairperson seat without a single representation from the Opposition. In Jagtial, it had won 17 ZPTCs out of 18, and the Congress the remaining one seat. In Rajanna-Sircilla district, TRS had won 11 out of 12 and Congress one. Similarly, in Peddapalli district, the TRS had won 11 out of 13 ZPTCs conceding two to the Congress.