It was an emphatic victory in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation polls on Friday that clearly established the people’s mandate for the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) across the entire State.

Well on its way to winning over 100 of the 150 wards for which polling was held on February 2 in the capital, the ruling TRS proved the sceptics wrong by establishing its influence in the urban pockets of Hyderabad, which had returned the opposition Telugu Desam and BJP candidates in the 2014 Assembly elections.

The win also endorses the emerging leadership of KT Rama Rao, the son of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao and Minister for IT. He led a whirlwind campaign that got him connected with voters in nearly 130 wards. The party, which promised and delivered improvements in power and water supply and reduced corruption, reaped rich dividends.

For the Congress (I), TDP and BJP it was a complete route. The TDP-BJP alliance could not notch up a double-digit number, while the Congress continued its unstoppable downslide, since the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, in both the States. The lackadaisical campaign of the Congress saw the party was down to a single digit.

The MIM performed on expected lines in the traditional strongholds of the old city. The party was set to win over 35 wards and emerge as the main opposition. The last time elections to the civic body were held way back in 2009.

The results on Friday demonstrated a clear ‘pink wave’ in most parts of the city.

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