Six months ago, few leaders, even in the Congress and the INDIA alliance, would have thought that the mighty K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) and his Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) would be defeated in Telangana. However, electoral politics is a great leveller and data shows that KCR, still a phenomenon in urban areas, was voted out by the rural voters.

In 80 of the 119 seats of Telangana classified as rural, the Congress trounced the BRS and won 56, compared to only 15 in 2018. The BRS won 62 in 2018, but could manage only 19 this time - down 43 seats. Given that 60 is the majority mark in the state, the scale of the rural win for the Congress is the singular factor that led to its victory.

It's not just agrarian discontent - family rule, focus on Hyderabad added to the two-term anti-incumbency. It is not that the BRS government did not do anything for rural areas, just that their narrative of economic growth suggested a greater urban bias. Much like the way the Telugu Desam Party was undone in 2004. Then it was........

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