The Congress party has lost several of its stalwart leaders in the recent assembly elections with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi defeating them with thumping majority.

In 2018 elections, Congress party pitted its candidates at 99 segments and only 19 contestants won the elections.

Former CLP leader Jana Reddy, T Jeevan Reddy, Komatiteddy Venkat Reddy, G Chinna Reddy, PAC president J Geetha Reddy, DK Aruna, Revanth Reddy and few other important leaders lost the elections.

TPCC Uttam Kumar Reddy and campaign committee chairman Mallu Batti Vikramarka are the only sitting MLAs to won the elections.

Some of the former MLAs like Duddilla Sridhar Babu, former home minister Sabitha Indra Reddy, Vanama Venkateshwar Rao, Gandra Venkataramana Reddy, Jagga Reddy, D Sudheer Reddy and D Seethakka also returned to the assembly,

But others like Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, Pilot Rohit Reddy and Haripriya Naik are new to the assembly.

Now the question is who would become the Leader of the Opposition or Congress Legislature Party leader out of these 19 MLAs. Since Rajagopal Reddy is capable, he is very new to the assembly.

Uttam Kumar Reddy could be made CLP leader, but he is already the PCC chief. If he is removed as the PCC chief, he can made the CLP leader, but it is unlikely to happen now.

Now, there is a competition among Mallu Batti Vikramarka, D Sridhar Babu and Sabitha Indra Reddy. If Mallu is picked up as the PCC chief, then the chance might come to either Uttam or Sridhar Babu.

If the party high command wants the chance to be given to a woman member, then it will go to Sabita, but one doubts whether she can take on KCR government effectively.

Congress leader and newly elected Sangareddy MLA Thoorpu Jayaprakash Reddy alias Jagga Reddy said he would not make any political allegations against KCR or on TRS government for the next four years.

Speaking to the media upon winning the election, Jagga Reddy said, “I will not leave Congress party at any cost and will strive for the development of my constituency with the support of KCR’s government. If the government doesn’t consider my proposals regarding my constituency, I will hold public meetings and list out the faults of the government.”

Jagga Reddy alleged that with the help of local leader Chinta Prabhakar, TRS had tried to defeat but people are on his side. “I lost the 2014 elections due to sentiment factor and this time I did not work,” said the once upon a time TRS leader.

On 17th of this month, Jagga Reddy is planning to hold a massive meeting in Sangareddy to thank people for voting him.

Independent MLA of Wyra constituency, Lavudya Ramulu has met KT Rama Rao and this has led to speculations that Rmulu is going to join TRS party.

Well, the newly elected candidates are yet to take oath as MLAs and in no time TRS party is making it moves swiftly. Another independent candidate Korukanti Chander who won in Ramagundam constituency too met KTR. Chander was a TRS rebel and post meeting with KTR, he had extended his full support to TRS.

In case of Ramulu who was a retired police officer, is yet to take a decision. Speaking to the media, he said he would discuss it with his supporter and well-wishers before taking a call.

Naik had anticipated for ticket from Congress but as he was snubbed, he contested as independent and won with a majority of 2013 votes.

“We will change the name of Hyderabad to Bhagyanagar. We will change the name of Karimnagar to Karipuram if we come to power,” said Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath during his campaigning for BJP in Telangana. Yogi, who is considered as BJP’s poster boy of Hindutva politics, failed to enthuse people or influence voters in Telangana.

This rejection of divisive politics of the BJP has been clear from the state’s voters. On the other hand, dismissing BJP’s politics, TRS Chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao commented that “Hyderabad peru marustha, toka marutha….annadu (they said, they will change the name of Hyderabad), where are they?,” he asked.

The Telangana election results have made it clear that people of Telangana have rejected BJP’s brand of religious politics and name-changing tactics. The party which had won 5 seats in 2014 and contest from nearly 100 of them in Telangana, won only single seat in the state – Goshamahal.

Even the Assembly elections in three other states have seen Congress limping back slowly but effectively to its form with BJP’s magic fading away in the country. At least now, BJP should focus on real development issues rather than using “Ram Temple” or “Religion” as its tool to win elections.

With Telangana Rashtra Samithi making a clean sweep in the 2018 assembly elections in Telangana, there are celebrations all over. And then, there is this high profile Tollywood celebrity group that is pouring wishes on the happening.

From Mahesh Babu to Ram Gopal Varma to many star celebs, we’ve seen them wishing TRS’ second in command, KTR, on his twitter timeline since yesterday. And then, they are getting those warm replies from KTR too. Going by that camaraderie one could say that these celebs love the Telangana IT minister a lot.

That said, why don’t these celebs who are showering so much love on KTR haven’t promoted him before the election. They should have endorsed KTR and also should have asked their fans to vote for KCR and TRS for the kind of welfare schemes the party introduced in this state. Isn’t it?

Some political analysts opine that in case if Praja Kutami had own, definitely the very same celebs would have showered praises on Uttam, Revanth and Naidu. So this music is played as per the season!

The whole country got shocked when BJP built the statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel, called ‘Statue Of Unity’, with around 2300 crores of people’s money. Calling it as an unnecessary waste, many critics and political analysts dubbed it as BJP’s unwanted show of power.

And then, Andhra Pradesh state’s Telugudesam folks also criticized this statue build by PM Modi and Co, but here comes the twist. Now AP government is getting ready to build a statue of TDP founder and legendary actor NTR at the new capital Amaravathi.

A report is doing rounds that the company that built ‘Statue of Unity’ is assigned the job of building ‘Statue of NTR’ at Amaravathi with 406 crores budget. The statue will be 32 feet tall and will be erected at Neerukonda area of the capital zone.

At a time when AP is in a severe budget crisis, one wonders what made Naidu spend a bomb for a statue, that too after criticising PM Modi for doing the same.

It is Reddy’s dominance yet again in Telangana Assembly. Out of the 119 newly elected MLAs, 40 members hail from the Reddy community while TRS has 31 of them and the rest are from Congress party.

BCs are the second largest in the Telangana assembly as the number stood at 22. 18 of them won on behalf of TRS party and Congress contributed 2. If the BC caste is classified, six are of Munnuru Kapu community and five belonged to Yadavs and four are from Goud caste.

The Schedule Caste and Tribe community have 19 and 12 representatives respectively. Out of the 19 SCs, TRS MLAs are 15 of them and if further classified, nine belong to Madiga community and 6 are Malas.

To everyone’s surprise K Chandrashekar Rao’s community which is Velama has only 10 MLAs presence and the minority Muslims have 8 members.

Kamma caste also got place in T’assembly. TRS allotted six seats to them while five of them won and TDP fielded 3 Kammas, but none of them won the elections.

The last in this list are Brahmins and Vysyas who managed to win 2 and one seats respectively.

Overall, the caste wise equations in the Telangana assembly is marginally similar to that of 2014. Now we have to see the new Telangana cabinet.