TRS won in four out of five seats it contested in the 2012 bypolls, leaving the Congress and the TDP high and dry in Telangana. However, a close analysis of the results show that ruling Congress and opposition TDP have actually increased their vote share, while TRS majorities have came down substantially.
In the by-elections held in 2010, TRS created history of sorts by winning with landslide margins in all the 11 seats it contested. While its average voting share was 60 plus percentage, the party polled 82 percent of all votes polled in Siddipet, a record till date.
The 2012 by-elections, however, did not repeat the same magic for the TRS, which secured 44 percent of the votes polled in all five constituencies it fielded candidates. That is a decline of more than 16 percent in a matter of a year and a half.
Compared to this, Congress showed improved performance. Congress Party got a modest 20 percent voting share in 2010 bypolls in the 12 seats it contested. Now, the party increased its vote share to 23.8 percent.
The most impressive growth in vote share in these polls is by the TDP, which was washed out in 2010, when it recorded a mere 6.7 percent. The party made impressive gains with a three-fold increase in this number to 18.7 percent in all the six seats it contested in Telangana.
It may be recalled that a TRS survey published in Namasthe Telangana daily claimed that the party would get 52 percent of votes polled, while actually it managed to get 8 percent less than the prediction.
