The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which scored a landslide victory in the recently held Assembly elections, has suffered a setback in the parliamentary polls.
The ruling party in Telangana was hopeful of securing 16 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats but the results shows that it may not be able to reach the double digit mark. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, which faced a humiliating defeat in the Assembly elections held in December 2018, have sprung a surprise with the former bagging four and the latter winning three seats.
The TRS anticipated a hung Parliament and entertained hopes of playing a key role in the formation of the next government. Accordingly, party president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao also floated the concept of “Federal Front”, a so-called coalition of regional parties and lobbied for the formation of a non-BJP and non-Congress government.
However, the TRS slogan of ‘Saaru, Caru, Padaharu’ (Sir, Car and 16), which meant that Mr. KCR would play a big role in the national politics, came crashing (car is the symbol of the TRS). The BJP made good inroads into the North Telangana heartland where the TRS had won a decisive mandate in the Assembly elections.