Cabinet Meet Feb 23: ZPTC, MPTC Polls, Rythu Bharosa on Agenda

Sources said Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, who will chair the Cabinet meeting, is keen on conducting the elections in March. The elections are politically significant as they are fought on party symbols. The Congress, which secured over 67 per cent of gram panchayats in the December 2025 elections and more than 80 per cent of municipalities in the recently concluded urban local body polls, is understood to be looking to capitalise on the prevailing political momentum by going to the polls at the earliest.
Elections to zilla parishad and (ZPTCs) and mandal parishad territorial constituencies (MPTCs) have been pending for more than two years, the tenure of the previous bodies having ending in January 2024.
The Cabinet is also expected to take a decision on releasing Rythu Bharosa assistance of `6,000 per acre to farmers for the ongoing yasangi season. The finance department has been asked to mobilise `9,000 crore for the purpose. The government plans to transfer the amount directly into the bank accounts of nearly 70 lakh farmers within nine days of initiating the disbursement process.
The government had adopted a similar model during the vanakalam (kharif) season in June 2025, when `9,000 crore was credited to farmers’ accounts over a period of nine days.

The government had earlier prioritised the completion of pending elections to gram panchayats and to municipalities and municipal corporations to ensure the restoration of 15th Finance Commission grants from the Centre. These had been stopped for nearly two years due to the absence of elected bodies since January 2024, which led to severe fund crunch in local bodies. Revanth Reddy had directed that these elections be completed before the end of the current financial year on March 31, 2026, to facilitate the release of grants within the fiscal year.