Hyderabad, February 18 The resounding victory of the Congress party in the recent municipal elections in Telangana is a significant boost for the ruling party and Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, and the election results send a cautionary message to the main opposition BRS, analysts said on Wednesday.
Out of the 116 municipalities and seven municipal corporations where elections were held on February 11, Congress secured mayoral positions in five municipal civic bodies and 89 municipalities.
BRS won 18 municipalities, while the BJP secured the Karimnagar municipal corporation and emerged as the single largest party in Nizamabad.
Political analyst Telakapalli Ravi said that Telangana represents a silver lining for Congress in the country, following the decisive win in municipal elections, as an ongoing power struggle is being witnessed in neighboring Karnataka, where Congress is in power.
He felt that the consolidation of Revanth Reddy's leadership, following Congress wins in the 2023 assembly polls, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, two assembly bypolls, and the recent Gram Panchayat elections, along with the government's welfare and development programs, helped Congress win the elections.
"This urban sweep, with over 73 per cent voter turnout, underscores the public endorsement of Chief Minister Revanth Reddy's welfare schemes and infrastructure promises, marking a sharp turnaround from Congress's 2021 urban defeat," said C R Sukumar, a senior journalist-turned-advocate.
Ravi said that the relentless attacks on the Chief Minister by BRS actually seem to be turning in favor of Revanth Reddy.
He opined that BRS no longer enjoys the special recognition it had about 10 years ago, due to the Telangana statehood agitation.
The suspension of former MP and BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao's daughter, K Kavitha, from BRS, and her subsequent attacks on the party, had some impact. The BJP has gained at the expense of BRS, he said.
BRS must reinvent to stem erosion, while the gains of the BJP hint at a tri-polar contest, potentially fragmenting anti-Congress votes. The BJP's victories in key corporations like Karimnagar position it as a viable third force, Sukumar said.
Ravi, however, said that much is at stake for all the parties in the upcoming civic body elections in Hyderabad, which has recently been trifurcated into the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Cyberabad Municipal Corporation, and Malkajgiri Municipal Corporation.
