Hyderabad: BRS vote share decreased from 41 to 16 percent, representation in Lok Sabha also decreased

Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which has dominated Telangana politics for the past decade, has suffered a major setback in the recently declared Lok Sabha election results. For the first time since the party was formed in 2001 (then known as Telangana Rashtra Samithi), the BRS will have no representation in Parliament. Compared to the 2019 elections, the BRS vote share fell from 41.71% to 16.69% in 2024. Despite early announcements of candidates for Khammam and Mehboobabad, the BRS finished third in 14 parliamentary constituencies across the state. The poor performance of the BRS in key constituencies was a major setback for the party leadership. For instance, a clear win was expected in Medak, the home district of BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao and party heavyweight T Harish Rao, but it turned out to be a big rout. Similarly, the BJP’s influence through nationalism and communal rhetoric in Karimnagar and Secunderabad played a key role in the BRS’s defeat. Even in Malkajgiri, where BRS has all the seven assembly seats, the party could not even reach the second position.
BRS had suffered a similar defeat in 2009, when it contested in alliance with TDP and won only two of the nine MP seats during the Telangana statehood movement. The party first contested general elections in 2004, winning five of the 17 MP seats in the Telangana region of the then Andhra Pradesh. In the subsequent by-elections, it retained only two seats due to the party’s decision to resign following the delay in the formation of Telangana state. However, after the state formation in 2014, BRS emerged victorious in 11 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats, while in 2019 it won nine of the 17 seats.