Published 20:37 IST, November 10th 2020
'BJP govts in all South India soon,' proclaims Tejasvi Surya on sole Telangana bypoll win
Winning the lone bypoll seat in Telangana, newly appointed BJP Yuva Morcha chief Tejaswi Surya, proclaimed that it will not be long before BJP forms govt
Winning the lone bypoll seat in Telangana, newly appointed BJP Yuva Morcha chief Tejaswi Surya, proclaimed that it will not be long before the saffron party forms a government in every state in the South. BJP has won the Dubbaka Assembly bypoll, with BJP's Madhavaneni Raghunandan Rao ahead of TRS Solipeta Sujatha by a margin of 1,118 votes. With this win, BJP holds 3 seats while TRS holds 103 seats in the 119-seat assembly. BJP has also won 2 bypoll seats in Karnataka.
Tejaswi Surya: 'BJP govt in all South'
Telangana 2019 Lok Sabha polls
In the southern state of Telangana, the fight for the 17 Lok Sabha seats was between the national parties BJP and Congress and the regional parties K. Chandrasekhar Rao's TRS and Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM. People gave a thumping victory for current Chief Minister KCR's party which won 9 seats while the NDA, UPA, and AIMIM won 4 seats, 3 seats, and 1 seat respectively. The major upset for TRS was KCR's daughter - Kavitha Kalvakuntla losing to Arvind Dharmapuri of the BJP by 70,875 votes.
BJP and the South
Contrary to Surya's proclamation, the South is one area where the Modi-Shah duo has been unable to make inroads. While they have won 3 seats in Telangana's 119-seat Assembly, they have no seats in the 175-seat Andhra Assembly where Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSRCP holds fort with 151 seats. Similarly, BJP has no seats in the 234-seat Tamil Nadu Assembly which is split between AIADMK (124) and DMK (97). In Left-ruled Kerala, LDf holds the majority with 91 seats in the 140-seat assembly.
The only beacon for BJP is Karnataka, where it is in power with 122 seats in the 224-seat assembly. The fall of the previous Congress-JD(S) government occurred between July 1 and 10, 2019, when 15 Congress and JD(S) MLAs resigned from the Assembly. After tendering their resignation, which was not accepted by the Speaker, there was three days of Hotel politics. Most of the MLAs were flown to Mumbai and were kept in a resort while they appealed to the Supreme Court to accept their resignations.
Meanwhile in Karnataka, the Congress and JD(S) tried to pacify their rebel MLAs who had mainly resigned as they were not given cabinet berths in the government. After being ordered to resign in person, the MLAs returned to Karnataka - leading to the much-awaited floor test on August 26, where the BJP managed to garner 105 votes in the truncated assembly, with the support of its 104 MLAs and the support of an Independent MLA. In last year's bypolls, BJP won 12 seats, Congress won 2 seats and Independent MLA won one seat.
Updated 20:37 IST, November 10th 2020