Hyderabad, Dec 4 (IANS): A mere two per cent difference in vote share decided the winner in Telangana Assembly elections.

The Congress party stormed to power by polling 39.40 per cent of votes, winning 64 seats in the 119-member Assembly. The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) missed the hat-trick despite polling 37.35 per cent votes.

The vote share of BRS came down drastically from 46.87 per cent in 2018 while the vote share of the Congress party went up by 10.97 per cent compared to the previous election.

BRS, which had bagged 88 seats in 2018, could secure only 39 seats this time. The Congress party, which had contested 2018 polls in alliance with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and two other parties, had contested 99 seats and secured 28.43 per cent votes but won only 19 seats.

TDP, which had fielded candidates in eight constituencies, won only two seats while its vote share was 3.51 per cent.

Out of 3.26 crore voters, 71.34 per cent cast their votes in the elections held on November 30. According to the statistics released by the Election Commission of India, the Congress party polled 92.35 lakh votes in 118 seats it contested. Its ally CPI won the only seat it contested with a vote share of 0.34 per cent.

In 2018, Congress had contested 99 seats and polled 58.83 lakh votes. The party was then heading four party People’s Front. Two other parties Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) and Communist Party of India (CPI) had drawn a blank with 0.40 per cent and 0.46 per cent votes respectively.

This time BRS polled 87.53 lakh votes against 97 lakh votes in 2018.

The BJP has almost doubled its vote share compared to the previous election. It polled 13.90 per cent votes against just 6.98 per cent in 2018. The saffron party significantly improved its tally of seats from one to eight.

This time BJP contested 111 seats and left eight segments for its ally Jana Sena Party (JSP), which drew a blank.

AIMIM, which retained its seven seats, garnered a vote share of 2.22 per cent, down from 2.71 per cent in 2018. It polled 5,19,379 votes in all nine constituencies.

Among other parties Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) polled 1.37 per cent, CPI-M 0.22 per cent and AIFB 0.62 per cent. Others secured 3.84 per centvotes.

According to the Election Commission, 0.73 per cent (1.71 lakh) exercised the NOTA (None Of The Above) option. In 2018, this number was 2.24 lakh.