For the people of Telangana, polling day was payback time for K Chandrasekhar Rao, Chief Minister and founder-leader of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, for all the good work he has done in the last four-and-a-half years in restoring their dignity and self-respect compromised in composite Andhra Pradesh by the Telugus of coastal Andhra.

Post-election result, there was no haggling for ministerial posts so common in other political parties. KCR was chosen leader of the TRS Legislature party and was sworn in as Chief Minister along with Mohammed Mahmood Ali as Deputy Chief Minister in a five-minute ceremony on the lawns of the Raj Bhavan.

The Opposition kept away from the function. Out of the 119 Assembly constituencies, more than 100 registered above 80 per cent polling which is seldom heard of. People in rural areas more than the urbanites exercised their franchise.

The TRS won 88 seats, almost a three-fourths majority, against 19 seats by the Congress, seven by the All India Majlis-e-Itthadul Muslimeen, two by the Telugu Desam Party and two independents. Of the 88 TRS MLAs, 70 hold graduate or post-graduate degrees.

Their victory margins are huge. The BJP won a solitary seat in spite of Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing five meetings and the BJP president 10 meetings. Whatever chances they might have had were spoiled by fielding UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on the campaign trail.

His promise of changing the name of the state if the BJP was voted to power impressed none of the voters. KCR’s national ambitions should not be dismissed lightly. Even before his swearing-in he unfolded his plan to launch a federal front sans the BJP and the Congress. It could well turn out to be a Trojan horse to help Modi get a second innings.

Victory of the Congress in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan has given a new impetus to the Congress and the People’s Front it is leading to face the coming Lok Sabha election. KCR is not opposed to the BJP per se. His real political opponent is Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and leader of the Telugu Desam Party, who is one of the leaders of the People’s Front.

KCR had made the just concluded Telangana Assembly election Chandrababu Naidu-centric by painting the TDP leader as an opponent of separation of his State from Andhra Pradesh.

The people of Telangana had been opposed to the forced union of their State with the erstwhile state of Andhra to form the composite AP in 1956. While many leaders took up the cause of separation of the two Telugu-speaking States, it was KCR who led the battle to victory. Emotionally he is close to the BJP.