Hyderabad's political leadership has issued a clear directive to its ground forces ahead of the decisive final round of local body elections. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and AICC in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan have instructed Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Mahesh Kumar Goud, along with ministers, MLAs, and key party leaders, to ensure that Congress-backed candidates secure more seats in the third and final phase of the panchayat elections than they did in the previous two phases.
A Call to Avoid Complacency
While acknowledging the party's strong performance in the initial phases, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy explicitly warned against any sense of complacency. He emphasized the need for party leaders to approach the concluding phase with heightened seriousness and focus. The final phase of polling, scheduled for Wednesday, is a massive electoral exercise covering 3,752 sarpanch posts, with 12,652 candidates in the fray, and 28,410 ward member positions, contested by a staggering 75,725 candidates.
The state government has already issued a Government Order (GO), instructing district collectors and special officers to conduct the swearing-in ceremony for all sarpanches and ward members elected across all three phases on December 20.
Congress Confident, BRS on the Backfoot
Congress MLC Balmoori Venkat, speaking on Tuesday, expressed strong confidence in the party's rural appeal. He stated that the Congress's impressive showing in the rural local body elections has significantly unsettled the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). According to Venkat, Congress-backed candidates won nearly 65% of the sarpanch seats in the first two phases. This figure climbs to over 70% when including the seats won by Left parties allied with the Congress.
"Rural voters have endorsed the people's government in both phases and are set to deliver a decisive majority to Congress-supported candidates in the third and final phase," Venkat asserted. He dismissed the claims of BRS working president KT Rama Rao, made after winning a few sarpanch seats in the Sircilla constituency, as "tall claims and baseless allegations."
Contesting Claims and Democratic Conduct
Venkat presented an interesting perspective on the few victories secured by BRS-backed candidates. He suggested that the Congress itself deserved some credit for these wins, as in many villages, two or three candidates loyal to the Congress contested for the same sarpanch seat, splitting the vote. Furthermore, he argued that the success of some BRS candidates actually demonstrates that the current Congress government and the State Election Commission conducted the elections in a free, fair, and democratic manner.
Drawing a sharp contrast with the past, Venkat recalled, "During the previous rural local body elections held under the then BRS government, authorities commonly placed Congress-backed candidates under house arrest or even kidnapped them. That does not happen now."
The BRS, which positions itself as the main opposition party in Telangana, has faced a tough battle. The party reportedly failed to win even 28% of the sarpanch seats in the first two phases, with thousands of villages lacking a BRS candidate to contest the sarpanch elections at all.
Pointing to the recent by-election verdict in Jubilee Hills as a precursor, Balmoori Venkat confidently concluded that villagers will once again throw their weight behind Congress-backed candidates in the third phase, rewarding the development and welfare schemes implemented during the two years of the "people's government."
