Telangana MLC elections: Double whammy for TDP

• TDP loses in biennial polls
• Its brightest star is now behind the bars
• BJP ditches TDP, prefers NOTA
• KCR has his way, gets all 5 nominees elected
• Cong bags one

KCR’s gamble of making five candidates stand the MLC elections paid off richly as all the five candidates won comfortably. While the Congress managed to get its nominee Akula Lalitha elected, the party that ended with egg on its face is the TDP.

It was a double whammy for the TDP as its candidate Vem Narender Reddy lost the battle and its brightest star in Telangana Revanth Reddy is now behind the bars after the botched up bid to buy votes.

The TRS planned its moves in a carefully calibrated manner and allotted 18 first preference votes to each of the five candidates. It managed to wean away TDP’s Kukatpally MLA Madhavaram Krishna Rao. KCR had even brandished the threat of resignation and going in for midterm polls if there was floor-crossing from the TRS ranks.

The victorious TRS candidates are Kadiyam Srihari, Tummala Nageswara Rao, B Venkateswarlu, Neti Vidya Sagar and K Yadav Reddy. As the results were announced, it became clear that Chandrababu Naidu could not keep his flock together and there were five NOTA votes, probably from its ally BJP. In the end, the MLC elections in Telangana on Monday will go down in the history for the comeuppance of the TDP and its complete outwitting by the wily KCR.