TRS Sweeps Secunderabad Cantonment Polls

Hyderabad, Jan 13 (IANS) Telangana's ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has bagged four out of the eight seats in Secunderabad Cantonment Board elections, the results of which were declared Tuesday.

Two rebel candidates of the TRS were also elected and one of them has announced that she will remain in the party. The Congress and an independent candidate bagged a seat each.

The poll results came as a huge set back to Bharatiya Janata Party-Telugu Desam Party alliance, which failed to win a single seat. In the assembly elections held in April last year, the alliance had won 14 out of 24 seats in Greater Hyderabad. Nine of those seats including Secunderabad Cantonment were won by the TDP.

The verdict is a big jolt to the alliance ahead of the elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

With its impressive performance, the TRS has made a debut in SCB, which was hitherto ruled by either Congress or TDP. In 2008 elections, Congress had bagged six seats and TDP two.

The elections to SCB, the biggest of the 62 cantonments in the country, were held Sunday. Only 44.4 percent of 1, 67,936 voters cast their votes.

The prominent who suffered defeat in the elections include the daughter of TDP legislator from Secunderabad Cantonment G. Sayanna. The daughters of Congress leader and former union minister Sarve Satyanarayana and former Andhra Pradesh minister Shankar Rao also lost the elections.