The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chose the political theatre of rural Telangana to convey that its naysayers were daydreaming about coming to power in 2023. It won all the 32 Zilla Parishad chairpersons posts in the state, besides winning most of the mandal parishads. What it effectively established was that the TRS was in the pink of political health and that the electoral reverses in the Lok Sabha elections were a one-off setback. 

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, the TRS had boasted it will win all the 16 seats, leaving the 17th to its ally, the MIM. But the BJP and the Congress surprised everyone by winning four and three seats respectively. On Tuesday, the two parties received a mauling in the local body elections, making it clear that the voters prefer chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao over any other leader when it comes to Telangana state affairs. 

It also firmly established the authority of KT Rama Rao, KCR’s son and TRS Working president on the working of the party.

But the endless joy was marred by two setbacks in places most unexpected. In KCR’s adopted village of Chinna Mulkanur in Karimnagar district, the TRS candidate lost to Independent candidate Rajesham in the MPTC (mandal parishad territorial constituency) election. 

KCR’s daughter K Kavitha suffered a double blow after her shock defeat in the Nizamabad Lok Sabha election. The TRS candidate lost in Pothangal village in Navipet mandal, which is the village of Kavitha’s in-laws. BJP candidate K Rajeshwar won against TRS candidate Chandrakala by a margin of 95 votes. This is the second time within a fortnight that the BJP has got the better of Kavitha in Nizamabad. 

The defeat would hurt as Kavitha had persuaded the Sun TV network to adopt Pothangal as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility activity. The network had sanctioned Rs 1.5 crore to construct a school building, a community hall and library in the village.

Elections were held to 5659 MPTCs and 534 ZPTCs in 32 districts of Telangana in May.