After LS elections, Cong, BRS, BJP prepare for T’gana local body polls

Telangana is all set to witness a high-stake battle for the local bodies in September, following the last week's order given by the Telangana high court directing the state government and the state election commission to complete the election process within 90 days.

- Srinivasa Rao Apparasu

This is going to be the first major test for all the major political parties in the state -the ruling Congress, the main opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after the Lok Sabha elections held in May 2024.

The term of the local bodies, including as many as 12,845 gram panchayats, 5,817 mandal parishad territorial constituencies (MPTCs) and 538 zilla parishad territorial constituencies (ZPTCs), ended on January 30, 2024 and since then, these local bodies have been under the administration of special officers

Future of Congress

For the Congress, which came to power in the state in December 2023 defeating the nine-and-a-half years-old BRS government, the local body elections are the biggest challenge to prove its credibility and acceptance of the state government in the last 18 months.

“One can call ita sort of referendum on the performance of chief minister A Revanth Reddy and his government. In the last 18 months, the Congress government struggled a lot in implementing its pre-election promises due to severe financial crunch,” political analyst Ramakrishna Sangem said.

Despite the constraints, the Revanth Reddy government has made efforts to implement some major welfare schemes, such as free bus travel for women in RTC buses, crop loan waiver to the extent of ₹21,000 crore, payment of increased amount of ₹12,000 per acre per year under Rythu Bharosa scheme by spending around ₹8,000 crore, supply of LPG cylinders at ₹500 for poor women, free electric power for homes below 200 units consumption and payment of ₹12,000 per year to landless labourers under Indiramma Atmeeya Bharosa, besides ₹500 bonus on the MRP for paddy.