The vote counting in India’s 2024 Lok Sabha election is underway.
Though the BJP-led NDA alliance faces a stronger challenge from the Congress-led INDIA Alliance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party showed a comfortable lead on Tuesday, 4 June as per the early figures reported by the Election Commission.
It is also turning out to be a straight contest between the ruling Congress and the BJP in Telangana.
K Chandrasekhar Rao’s (KCR) Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is trailing far behind.
Let’s take a closer look.
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What’s happening in Telangana?
The BJP and the grand old Congress party appear to be evenly split in the state.
The two main contenders each hold eight of the state’s 17 Lok Sabha seats, respectively.
After more than 40,000 votes at the end of the fifth round, Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is clinging to its stronghold, the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat.
Trends thus far suggest that the BJP has definitely become a powerful force in Telangana, in contrast to predictions of triangular contests in multiple seats.
Secunderabad, Malkajgiri, Chevella, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, and Adilabad are among the constituencies where its candidates are leading from the first round. Meanwhile, Ch. Vamsichand Reddy, the Congress candidate, and DK Aruna, the BJP candidate from Mahbubagar, are running closely together.
In the seats of Nalgonda, Khammam, Bhongir, Peddapalle, Nagarkurnool, Mahbubabad, and Zahirabad, the Congress continues to hold a commanding lead.
Congress is in third place in Medak, but the difference between the three parties is not that large.
The BRS, led by K Chandrasekhar Rao, seemed to be the biggest loser because it was trailing in every constituency.
Why is the BRS trailing?
KCR, the man credited with bringing Telangana to statehood and who has governed the region since its founding in 2014, is on his way out.
The BRS had risen to power as a result of the Telangana Movement, which divided Andhra Pradesh.
Rao’s party, which was then known as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), maintained its dominance in 2019 by winning nine of the 17 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP secured four seats, including Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, and Secunderabad, while the Congress secured three seats, including Malkajgiri.
However, after changing its name to BRS in 2022, it was dogged by controversy.
Many in the party had privately admitted that it did not sit well with the electorate, who saw it as a shift in focus from state difficulties to the leader’s national objectives.
The party’s family-centric governance, broken promises, especially to voter groups like Dalits and unemployed youth, and grave allegations of corruption, including KCR’s daughter K Kavitha’s alleged involvement in the Delhi excise policy case, only added to the trouble.
Moreover, the BRS also endured a loss in the Legislative Assembly polls held in November last year.
Notably, the sole electoral defeat for KCR came in 1983 when he lost to Siddipet by a mere 887 votes in his first assembly election. KCR has since participated in and won each of the 11 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
According to the Indian Express, citing experts, in addition to external political forces, the BRS was facing formidable obstacles rooted in strongly held beliefs and demographic facts.
These mounting troubles led a large number of BRS leaders to head straight for the Congress and the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, making it obvious what was coming next.
These leaders were warmly received by both sides, with the BJP welcoming more than 10 former BRS members and the Congress about four BRS leaders, including Tellam Venkat Rao and Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy.
What’s happening at the national level?
PM Modi’s NDA alliance was winning a majority of seats about halfway through the count in the general election on Tuesday
However, the ruling alliance, which aimed for more than 400 seats with the slogan “Abki baar, 400-paar,” is falling short of a majority of its own, hovering just below the 300-seat mark, the trends showed.
The Opposition INDI alliance, led by the Congress party and its main campaign leader, Rahul Gandhi, was leading in 230.
The Election Commission does not release data on the percentage of votes tallied, but counting was to go on throughout the day and early figures were expected to change.
A significant development is in Uttar Pradesh, the NDA is leading in just 34 seats (32 held by the BJP and two by the RLD), while the INDIA bloc is leading in 45 seats (37 held by the SP and eight by the Congress), according to the most recent figures from the Election Commission.
The BJP-led NDA is performing quite well in two states, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh (AP). The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) of Chandrababu Naidu has cleared the halfway point in AP, while in Odisha, the BJP comfortably leads Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
In Maharashtra, there is a fierce battle between both, with the INDIA bloc leading in 30 seats and the NDA in 17.
With the ruling party in West Bengal holding a 31-seat advantage over the opposition BJP, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is gradually gaining ground.
In Tamil Nadu, the DMK-led INDI alliance is leading in 38 out of the 39 seats., while in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has secured a third consecutive landslide victory.
With inputs from agencies
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