The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now BRS) emerged as the single-largest party by securing 99 wards out of the 150 and the BJP won only 4 seats in the 2016 GHMC elections. The All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) of Asaduddin Owaisi won 44 wards.
The TRS won only 56 wards, while Bharatiya Janata Party and AIMIM won 48 and 44 wards respectively in the 2020 GHMC elections. The TRS witnessed a change of almost 43 wards compared to the previous GHMC elections.
While there are 29 Assembly constituencies in the erstwhile Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts together, seven seats were won by the MIM. The TRS bagged 18 out of the remaining 22.
The city of Nizams was not that pally with the BRS as the party was considered as more of a political outfit with a rural background and didn't reflect the urban outlook when the party began its baby steps. Moreover, the city that has a considerable number of settlers was not ready to welcome a party that had an agitational background.
However, the sustained developmental work undertaken by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and IT and Municipal Minister KT Rama Rao slowly erased that image. The TRS Government put a lot of effort into improving the overburdened and ill-planned infrastructure by initiating a plethora of development works.
The Metro Rail, the Strategic Road Development Project, and the Strategic Nala Development Programmes coupled with massive expansion in the IT sector helped the TRS Government in gaining the confidence of all its citizens irrespective of their regional and political affiliations.
Assembly elections in 2018 saw the emergence of TRS as a power to reckon with, with its candidates winning 18 seats out of the 22 it contested and the friendly Majlis winning 7 seats.
The consolidation of the so-called urban vote was made possible by the Ministers and MLAs of the ruling party who saw to it that the social welfare schemes designed by the Government were delivered to the common person in the urban conglomerate.
While a Minister like Chamakura Mallareddy representing the Medchal Assembly constituency had a huge fan following for his inimitable style, Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav representing Sanath Nagar has a good name and knows the pulse of people. The Minister could be found wherever there was trouble in the city and never hesitated to take responsibility for any untoward incident that occurred in the huge city.
Padma Rao Goud contesting from Secunderabad did yeomen work for the people of his constituency during the prolonged Covid pandemic. As an MLA he has his way with people. Arekapudi Gandhi is famous amongst the settlers in the Serilingampally constituency. He has ground-level connections in this constituency and is available to the people around the clock.
Madhavaram Krishna Rao of the Kukatpally Assembly constituency is known for his availability to the party cadre and the people of the constituency where there is heavy stress on the civic infrastructure due to the huge migrant population. Similarly, Muta Gopal of Musheerabad constituency is known for his good relations with the minority community living in his constituency.
On top of this, the presence of the Municipal Minister and BRS working president KT Rama Rao in Hyderabad and his image as a progressive leader helped the party to change the perception and brought cohesiveness among the urban voters.
Batting a minuscule section that has staunch TDP leanings, a large number of Andhra settlers have always been rallying behind the BRS owing to their safety, security, thriving businesses and also employment opportunities.
The city’s populace reposed so much confidence that they personally take pride in being part of the metamorphosis of the City.
