Revanth Reddy Asserts Dominance with ULB Sweep
The results, coming after its recent success in the gram panchayat polls, gave the Congress a completeness which the party missed in 2023 Assembly polls
Hyderabad: “Nene raju…. nene mantri” (I am numero uno) was how Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had let his adversaries, both within and outside the Congress, know of his absolute control over the state administration and the party, a day before the counting of votes for the urban local bodies. Friday’s results fully justified his statement, and his position.
Revanth Reddy also forced the BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao to shift his goal post — calling the civic elections a referendum on the Congress government — to the next election. Not one to disappoint his arch rival, Rama Rao, at a press conference, dared the Chief Minister to make the defected BRS legislators resign and seek a fresh mandate if he was confident of winning. The Congress on the other hand set its sights on the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation polls, which is now trifurcated.
“After the drubbing in the Assembly polls, KTR claimed that his party was irreplaceable in urban areas and shifted the goal post to the Lok Sabha elections. Then came the Secunderabad Cantonment and Jubilee Hills bypolls, each of which he said were a referendum,” said revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy. The BRS lost all the polls.
“When we spoke of winning about 65 per cent of the gram panchayats, KTR said the party symbol-based polls for the municipal bodies would show the actual strength of the BRS. In all these elections, it is for everyone to see how we fared,” Srinivas Reddy said.
In election after election after the 2023 Assembly polls, the Congress, with its stupendous victories, has been consolidating its position in the state. Friday’s sweep of the ULBs is even more triumphant for the Chief Minister as it shattered the BRS’ dream of retaining its hold on the urban electorate, which gave it a respectable tally in the Assembly polls, as well the saffron party’s claims that its journey of replacing the principal opposition party would begin from the ULB polls.
The results, coming after its recent success in the gram panchayat polls, gave the Congress a completeness which the party missed in 2023 Assembly polls. Revanth Reddy’s strong resolve to push the agenda of BC empowerment, supply of fine variety of rice through the PDS, free power to poor and travel to all sections of women besides effective poll management helped the party pull off victory after victory.
“People are convinced that we are keeping our promises despite the precarious financial conditions. People also have been rejecting outright the blatant lies of the BRS,” Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka pointed out.
Congress leaders were of the view that Revanth Reddy was the second Congress Chief Minister, the first being Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy in undivided AP, to enjoy the enviable position as strongman but the difference is that the former believes more in team work. “While giving a free hand to ministers, Revanth Reddy is also forcing them to share responsibility, not just power,” said a minister.
