By the time results filter in late Friday evening, Telangana’s ruling TRS would’ve emerged as the winner of the high-stake Greater Hyderabad Municipal Polls (GHMP). But this would leave them, and Asaduddin Owaisi of AIMIM very, very worried.
As of now, KC Rao’s TRS looks set to lose at least 30 seats to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a drop of 40 percent from its tally of 2016 which would give them now sleepless nights. It’s worth recalling that BJP had won only four seats last time around.
TRS, going by the trend at 7 p.m, could win 60 of the 150 municipal seats. The BJP may cross 40 and unless something untoward happens would pip AIMIM to third spot. Congress is nowhere in the picture with only four seats looking to come their way.
The high-voltage campaign had seen quite a few of BJP’s top brass descending on Hyderabad to pitch for the party. It included home minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, not to speak of Tejasvi Surya, the BJP young wing chief.
The polarizing campaign focussed less on road and water and sanitation and more on Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and whether Hyderabad should be named to Bhagyanagar.
