In the 2018 Telangana elections, a joint opposition alliance of the Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and other smaller outfits against the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS, now BRS) was unable to dislodge the incumbent TRS government. The TRS, headed by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), had a resounding victory as it won 88 out of 119 Assembly seats. The Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), in spite of an alliance, could win just 19 and two seats each. 

The Asaduddin Owaisi-headed All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) retained its seven seats, six of which fall in Hyderabad’s old city. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) managed to win just one seat – Goshamahal – which also partially falls in the old city areas of Hyderabad.

Overall, the TRS managed to get 47% of the total vote share, while the Congress secured about 28.4% of the vote share. However, the Congress managed to get about 35% of the vote share in the 99 seats it had contested with the TDP, which got about 30% of the votes in the 13 constituencies it contested.

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The AIMIM put up candidates in eight constituencies, with Rajendernagar being the only one it lost. In total, Owaisi’s outfit got 2.7% of the overall vote share, and 47% of votes in the eight seats it contested. 

Moreover, after the polls, 12 out of the 19 Congress MLAs and both the TDP legislators jumped ship and defected to the TRS, leaving the Assembly with barely any opposition. Aside from that, then Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy also vacated his Huzurnagar seat to successfully win the Nalgonda Lok Sabha seat in 2019. His wife Padmavathi, who was nominated in the resulting by-poll, also lost the seat to the TRS eventually.