Telangana goes to the polls on December 7; the battle lines are drawn. A few surprises are, however, in store for commentators, for differences in social and economic conditions in each constituency make it notoriously difficult to gauge people’s mood. Predictions based on statistical models, too, don’t accurately reflect ground realities.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) came to power in 2014 on the back of the successful bid for separate statehood. However, even then, they got only 34 per cent voteshare and just 63 seats in the 119-member assembly. In contrast, the Congress, which led UPA-II and was a major claimant for the creation of Telangana, got 25 seats with voteshare of 25.5 per cent. The people had also elected Telugu Desam Party candidates in 15 (a share of 12 per cent) seats. The BJP won five seats (3-4 per cent voteshare) and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) seven seats (2.7 per cent voteshare).
While the TRS has provided reasonably good governance and won accolades for maintaining an...
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