HYDERABAD: The recent floods that wreaked havoc appear to have severely dented the winning prospects of the TRS in the GHMC elections.
The BJP won a majority of GHMC wards in the flood-affected areas under LB Nagar, Uppal, Rajendranagar, Musheerabad, Secunderabad and Himayatnagar Assembly segments .
The Opposition had targeted the ruling party during the election campaign on its alleged failure of handling the flood situation and not extending timely relief to victims. They also targeted the TRS for failing to extend Rs 10,000 assistance to all families affected by the flood and accused that TRS corporators had looted during the distribution of financial aid.
The BJP, which emerged second in the GHMC results on Friday, had promised Rs 25,000 assistance to each affected family if it came to power. The TRS counter-argument against BJP’s assurance apparently did not have any impact on the voters in the flood-affected areas and rallied behind the BJP and gave it a lion’s share of divisions.
The assurance of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao of extending the Rs 10,000 to the remaining families after GHMC elections also seems not to have worked. During the flood scores of colonies were inundated in areas like Champapet, Uppal, Bandlaguda, Meerpet, Dilsukhnagar, LB Nagar, Malkajgiri and Saroornagar.
Due to heavy rains with Hussainsagar reaching the full tank level (FTL), surplus water flooded Gandhinagar, Ashoknagar, Padma Colony, Nagamaiah Kunta, Nallakunta, Vidyanagar, Domalguda, Arundathinagar, Ambedkarnagar, Aravindanagar, Shivanandanagar.
Voters in Uppal defeated the wife of Uppal MLA Subhash Reddy and those in Rajendranagar segment chose BJP in three of the five wards in the segment.
The divisions in flood affected areas like Kavadiguda, Adikmet, Nallakunta, Moosarambagh, Musheerabad, Gandhinagar Monda Market Champapet, Chaitanyapuri and Bagh Amberpet were pocketed by the BJP.
In Secunderabad GHMC circle's total of 27 divisions, BJP clinched 14 seats, in LB Nagar circle they bagged 15 seats out of 23, in Khairatabad nine seats out of 27 while in Charminar circle it won seven of 36 seats.
