The Supreme Court verdict staying the declaration of results for polls to mandal and zilla parishad territorial constituencies is considered a morale booster to Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) as the party is struggling to find strong candidates for several constituencies in general elections.
Sources said the TRS leadership feared the impact of MPTC and ZPTC elections on the party’s performance in general elections, especially in the background of TRS going it alone in the ongoing elections. But, the apex court stayed the declaration of results till May 7 when the two-phase elections to the Assembly and Parliament are completed.
The TRS had fared poorly in the municipal and panchayat raj elections in 2005 and 2006 respectively when the party entered the contest without any alliance partners. The situation in terms of alliance is no different this time though the party questionably expects to ride the crest of formation of Telangana. However, the High Court is yet to deliver the judgment on results of municipal polls.
The TRS had won only two out of 96 municipalities and 75 out of 932 wards and 381 out of 16,130 MPTCs and 25 out of 1,100 ZPTCs. The vote share of TRS was 2.36 per cent in MPTC and 2.28 per cent in ZPTC elections.
Sources added that the TRS was finding it difficult to identify winning candidates in at least 35 Assembly and some Parliamentary constituencies. The list of Assembly constituencies includes Nirmal, Nizamabad urban and rural, Balakonda, Zaheerabad, Malkajgiri, Kukatapally, Maheswaram, Rajendranagar, Malakpet, Jubilee Hills, Karwan, Goshamahal, Chandrayangutta, Yakutpura, Bahadurpura, Kodangal, Narayanpet, Devarakadra, Alampur, Shadnagar, Devarakonda, Nagarjunasagar, Miryalguda, Kodad, Thungaturthi, Wardhannapet, Mulug, Pinapaka, Yellandu, Khammam, Palair, Madhira, Wyra, Aswaraopet and Bhadrachalam.
The TRS is comfortably placed in 36 Assembly segments, mainly because of influx from Telugu Desam and Congress. The party had won only 10 seats in 2009, but it added 18 MLAs to its tally after that, including three from Congress. The rest were from TDP. Also, seven leaders of some prominence have also joined and actor-politician Babu Mohan is waiting in the wings. The TRS has found itself in a spot in identification of candidates after spurning the offer of alliance from CPI and ruling out truck with the Congress.
