Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s spectacular show in the Zilla Parishad and Mandal Parishad polls proves how the party has strengthened at the grass-roots level in the past few years.
It is worth remembering that TRS party first shot to fame when it won several ZPTCs in 2001, a couple of months after the party’s inception. But the party could not repeat its success in the 2006 elections.
TRS has often come under scrutiny for not having enough ‘cadre’ and second-rung leaders in several districts.
Generally the local-body elections are fought on local issues. Village-level politics, caste loyalties play a major role in deciding the victor. Also, the ruling party has an edge over other parties in such elections. TRS was never really in power and the Telangana sentiment did not generally reflect in the local-body elections. It is for this precise reason, TRS was never a big player in the municipal, gram panchayat and Parishad elections.
But the latest results are a testimony that the situation has changed and TRS is only growing from strength to strength. The party has transformed a lot in the last few years. It is now in a position to challenge established political parties like Congress and TDP even in local body elections.
When compared to the last ZPTC elections, which were held in 2006, TRS has improved its tally from a mere 25 ZPTCs to a whopping 191 ZPTCs. While Congress has come down from 200 ZPTCs in 2006 to 178 now. The TDP has lost its base considerably and came down to 52 ZPTCs from 150 in 2006.
When we look at district-wise results, in 2006, TRS could not win even one ZP Chairperson post, but now it has already bagged 3 ZPs and is in a strong position to win 1-2 more ZPs, where no party has a clear majority.
The above chart clearly shows how TRS has eaten into the share of both Congress and TDP to emerge as a leading party in Telangana.