Hyderabad: While Congress cadres in Seemandhra, had more or less braced themselves for a drubbing, owing to the discontent generated due to bifurcation, in Telanga-na they seemed confident of a good showing on account of granting separate statehood to the region.
And in the absence of star campaigners, the party banked on AICC president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But it did not help much. All the Congress candidates, including former Union minister S. Jaipal Reddy, Telangana PCC president Ponnala Lakashmaih and former Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha lost in places where the trio campaigned.
In Karimnagar, where Ms Sonia addressed her first meeting, sitting MP Ponnam Prabhakar, Telangana PCC Manifesto Committee chairman and former minister D. Sridhar Babu and others were defeated.
Rahul Gandhi addressed meetings at Mahbubnagar, Warangal, Hyderabad and Nizamabad, all of which saw Congress candidates fail. Bhongiri sitting Congress MP Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy, confident of a win, lost too. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had addressed one public meeting at Bhongiri.
Former government chief whip Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy, who was defeated from Bhoopalpalli Assembly segment in Warangal district, said the main difference between the Congress and the TRS was the manifesto.
People had approved of the TRS manifesto. Besides, the party had campaigned to the village level and TRS supremo K. Chandrasekhar Rao addressed in all the villages through 3D system, something the Congress couldn’t match up to it.
Meanwhile in Seemandhra, Congress leaders identified 20 Assembly constituencies where it stood some chances of winning and concentrated on them. APCC leaders thought former ministers Kondru Murali (Rajam), Dronamraju Srinivas (Visakhapatnam South), Malladi Vishnu (Vijayawada Central), Kanna Laxmi Narayana (Guntur south), Kotla Sujatha (Dhon), Anamrama Narayana Reddy (Atmakur), APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy (Penukonda) and others would win. But they didn’t win a single of the 175 seats and moreover 150 candidates lost their deposits also.
