New Delhi/Hyderabad: Two years after returning to power in Telangana, the Indian National Congress strengthened its hold over the state’s urban landscape on Friday, leading in at least 83 of the 116 municipalities and five of the seven municipal corporations that went to polls on February 11.
The results have cemented the position of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy despite the grand old party witnessing several setbacks in the recent polls held across several states in the last two years.
The Congress secured 67 of 116 municipalities and four of seven corporations that went to polls on 11 February, with hung verdicts in over 35 municipalities and three corporations.
The opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which ruled Telangana for two terms, was reduced to 13 municipalities and did not win any corporation.
Reddy, who was in Delhi for two days to meet several Union ministers and party leaders, while responding to a question, said, “The results of the local body polls will put a stamp on my work in the state in the last two years.”
Reddy said, “In the last two years, the Congress did well in the by-elections in the state and also in the Sarpanch elections. And in the local body polls, we will again gain.”
Reddy’s comments draw the party leadership’s clear message to deliver on the promises that it had made during the Assembly polls two years ago.
It is worth mentioning that the Congress, which faced a massive rout in the Bihar Assembly polls, had managed to win Hyderabad’s Jubilee Hills Assembly seat by a margin of over 25,000 votes.
The Congress candidate Naveen Yadav won and was followed by BRS’s Maganti Sunitha Gopinath in second place, and the BJP’s Deepak Reddy Lankala in third position. Jubilee Hills is one of 15 constituencies in Hyderabad.
The seat, won in 2023 by BRS’s Maganti Gopinath, went to the polls after his death in June this year. Gopinath held the seat since 2014 and won it for the Telugu Desam Party before switching to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, now known as BRS. Sunitha Gopinath, the BRS candidate for this election, is the wife of Maganti Gopinath.
Interestingly, Maganti Gopinath had defeated former India cricketer and captain Mohammed Azharuddin, who contested the 2023 polls as a Congress candidate. Another factor in the Congress’s strong performance this time is that the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM backed the Congress candidate.
Meanwhile, in the Sarpanch polls in the state, the ruling Congress strengthened its hold over politics as it claimed to have won over 60 per cent of gram panchayats that went to polls in three phases up to December 17.
Rural body polls were held in 12,702 out of 12,728 gram panchayats in 31 out of 33 districts in the state.
Congress-backed Sarpanch candidates won in 7,527 panchayats and party rebels won in another 808 panchayats. Together, they won 8,335 panchayats, which constitute 66 per cent of the total number of bodies for which elections were held.
While the candidates backed by the main opposition BRS and the Bharatiya Janata Party won 4,221 panchayats combined, which account for 33 per cent of the local bodies that went to polls. The BRS alone won 3,511 Sarpanch posts and the BJP 710.
Congress had also won the Secunderabad Cantonment by-polls in 2024.
The Chief Minister, who had met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Delhi, said he would remain in office for 10.5 years, surpassing former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s 9.5-year tenure.
His calculation was apparently based on Telangana going to polls in “Jamili (One Nation, One Election) mode” in mid-2029, which could keep him in the Chief Minister’s seat for six additional months beyond the Assembly election due in late 2028.
The Assembly polls were last held in November 2023, when he wrested power from K Chandrasekhar Rao’s BRS in the state.
On Friday, as the results were coming in, Reddy met Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who congratulated him on the party’s performance.
The Chief Minister told Priyanka Gandhi that the results proved Telangana voters were content with his government’s welfare schemes and development programmes.
In a post on X, Revanth described the results as “public endorsement of his two years of praja-paalana (people-centric rule)”.
Even Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge hailed the party’s victory in the municipal elections in Telangana, saying the mandate reflects the trust of the people.
In a post on X, Kharge said, “My gratitude to the committed grassroots workers of Telangana Congress for their commendable victory in the Telangana local body elections. This mandate reflects the trust of the people. The Congress government remains resolute to our solemn affirmation of a ‘Prajala Telangana’ — a state where social justice, economic empowerment and continuous progress are assured for all its 3.8 crore people.”
