Revanth Reddy leads Congress to 8 seats in Telangana

Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy

Riding on the success it has had in 2023 Assembly Elections, Congress won eight seats out of the 17 Lok Sabha constituencies that are in contention. In the 2019 elections, the national party had only secured three seats.

Bharatiya Janata Party won eight seats too, and AIMIM won one seat. Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi drew a blank.

The party had 40 percent of the vote share, in comparison to BJP's 35 percent and BRS' 16 percent.

The results are in line with what exit polls had said for the State, with pollsters predicting 7-10 seats for BJP, 5-8 seats for INDIA bloc, and 3-5 for others.

However, going by statements given by Telangana CM Revanth Reddy earlier, the Congress may feel a little disappointed despite doubling their tally from the 2019 elections.

Earlier Reddy had said that Congress will win at least 10 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state. He claimed that BJP would get four-five seats in Telangana.

Reddy, political analysts believe has been single-handedly responsible for increasing the grand old party’s seat share in the 2023 Assembly Elections from 19 to 65 seats.

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, chief minister Reddy had hit the ground running, addressing multiple rallies a day. He is also said to have a good rapport with Congress’ central leadership, especially Rahul Gandhi.

The party had hoped for a favourable result in the State due to the influx of leaders from other parties such as BRS and BJP itself – suggesting increasing support for the party at the grassroots level.

The elections in Telangana also saw an overwhelming participation of women voters. Political analysts expect a majority of these votes to go to Congress, because of the party's introduction of free bus service and the recently launched 200 units of free power and gas cylinder at Rs 500 for eligible families.

However, Reddy was unfazed. On June 2, while interacting with media persons,

He also claimed that the INDIA bloc would form the government and Gandhi would become PM. The BJP may not get more than 240 seats, he said.

However, BJP, is aiming to improve its performance from the 2019 Lok Sabha elections where it won 4 seats, and is banking on key issues like the Ayodhya Ram temple to sway voters.

Meanwhile, the BRS, led by former CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, will be looking to reaffirm its standing in the state after its setback in the assembly elections. The performance in the Lok Sabha elections will be crucial for BRS to maintain its political relevance.