As the high-voltage campaign for the Telangana urban local body elections came to an end Monday, the three major contenders – the ruling Congress, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the BJP – are looking to get an upper hand in the February 11 polls.
Another player, the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM, has adopted a wait and watch stance, saying that a post-poll alliance may be on the cards.
For the Congress, the elections could be a “referendum” on its two-year-old government and also a test of whether or not its policies resonate with the urban electorate, which had seemingly sided with the BRS in the 2023 Assembly polls.
Of the 119 Assembly seats in Telangana, 80 are classified as rural. In 2018, the BRS had swept the rural belts, winning 62 of these 80 seats, with the Congress trailing at 15. But in the 2023 Assembly polls, the BRS managed to win just 19 of these seats while the Congress emerged victorious in 56.
In contrast, the BRS performed well in the urban areas. In the Hyderabad region, of the 24 seats, the Congress drew a blank while the BRS won 16 seats. The AIMIM emerged victorious in seven while the BJP won one seat.
“Even after winning (last year’s) Jubilee Hills Assembly bypoll (in Hyderabad), the Congress needs to prove itself by winning big in the urban local body polls. This will also seal the deal for us in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections, for which the notification has yet to be issued,” a Congress insider said.
While Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and other senior Congress leaders have revolved their campaigns around its welfare schemes and allegations that the BRS, led by former CM K Chandrashekar Rao or KCR, “looted” Telangana while in power, the party would also look to capitalise on the rifts within the KCR family. It has also clarified that it would protect the 4% reservation for OBC Muslims in the state.
Last September, KCR’s daughter K Kavitha quit the BRS and has since been accusing the party leadership of allegedly amassing wealth illegally. She has not floated her own outfit so far and has also not announced support for any other party.
However, observers say the BRS may still spring a surprise in the civic polls. “The BRS cannot be ruled out as its leaders have been on the ground raising issues regarding the functioning of the Revanth Reddy government,” an observer said, pointing out that its approach was in stark contrast to the Congress’s, which was almost dormant during the tenure of the KCR government between 2014 and 2023.
The elections for 2,996 seats across 116 municipalities and seven municipal corporations across Telangana will be held through ballot paper Wednesday, with the results to be announced on Friday.
For the BRS, the outcome of these polls would be critical, especially after the party seemed to have fared poorly in the recent rural local body polls, where around 60% of the candidates supported by the Congress won. These panchayat polls were not held on the party symbols.
Noting that the BRS does not have any aggressive campaigner like KCR, who has rarely been seen in public since the party’s 2023 election debacle, a party leader said the upcoming civic polls would serve as a test for the leadership of its working president and his son, K T Rama Rao or KTR. “He (Rama Rao) was once referred to as an elite politician but is now seen aggressively taking on the Congress,” the leader added.
The BJP, on the other hand, is relying on its Hindutva card and would be hoping for a strong
performance after winning eight of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state – most of them in urban areas – in the 2024 elections.
A BJP leader said the party was looking to expand its footprint in the state but has been left in an “uncomfortable” position as its NDA ally, the Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Party (JSP), has fielded 336 candidates in the civic polls. “However, there is a strong anti-incumbency against the Congress while the BRS is in disarray,” the leader said, pointing out that the party had won 10-15% of these seats in the past.
Another BJP insider said all the party’s star campaigners like Union Ministers Bandi Sanjay Kumar and G Kishan Reddy and Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis have spoken about how Hindus were “being taken for granted” under the Congress regime.
Claiming that Muslims need a leadership of their own and neither the BRS nor the BJP can bring development in Telangana, the AIMIM has seemingly gone soft on the Congress. “While there is no pre-poll alliance on the cards, the possibility of a post-poll alliance cannot be ruled out,” an AIMIM insider said.