Click to play videoHyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), which wants separate statehood for Telangana region, retained only two of its four Lok Sabha and seven of the 18 assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, according to by-poll results declared on Sunday.
The drubbing is doubly embarrassing for TRS, as four of its MPs and 16 MLAs resigned from the party early this year to protest against the Congress-led UPA government and the Andhra Pradesh government for not delivering on their promise of statehood for Telangana. The by-poll results though clearly reflect the mood of the people in the region.
The Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) walked away with six and five Assembly seats respectively. TRS took the two Lok Sabha seats of Karimnagar and Hanamkonda and the Congress took Adilabad and the TDP Warangal.
TRS chief Chandrasekhara Rao, popularly known as KCR, won the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat by 15,000 votes: a sharp reduction since 2004 when he won the seat by 2 lakh majority.
Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy said the by-poll results showed TRS had failed to fool the people. "The TRS' strategy went wrong. They thought they could take the people for a ride and the people have answered. They thought they had the Telangana sentiment in their pocket," he said.
TDP MP Yerra Naidu said the people had taken vengeance on TRS. “The party didn't do anything (for achieve separate state) and didn't oppose the state government’s moves against the Telangana people. They forced 2 by-elections upon the people, who have answered,” said Naidu
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