Hyderabad, February 16: The Congress party, under the leadership of Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, has trampled the main opposition, the BRS, in the municipal elections, winning 86 out of the 105 chairmanships/mayors, leaving the BRS high and dry with a trifling 18 municipalities to its kitty.
The BJP won a solitary corporation, posting a victory in Karimnagar Municipal Corporation. The BRS lost its face in all seven municipal corporations, while the Congress won five corporations. The Congress supported its electoral ally, the CPI, in Kothagudem where the two parties contested independently, winning a sizeable number of 22 seats each, limiting the BRS to just 8 corporator posts.
The Congress outperformed all its opponents in the civic body elections in Telangana, held on February 12. The results were declared on February 14. The election for the posts of Chairmen/Mayors and Vice-chairmen/Deputy Mayors was held on February 16.
The State Election Commission, on Monday, postponed the elections to the top jobs in 11 municipalities. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has taken upon his shoulders the onus of ensuring the Congress victory in a maximum number of seats.
The Congress was levitated from nowhere to this position of consolidated supremacy over its immediate rival, the BRS, in a matter of just two years of coming to power.
The BRS had held an unchallenged stranglehold at all levels in the State until a challenger in the form of Revanth Reddy emerged on the political horizon of the State.
The BRS had won 88 seats in the State Assembly elections on its own in 2018 elections and went on to win almost all the civic bodies, leaving a dismal number to the opposition.
The BRS usurped many legislators of the Congress, unseating the latter from the position of the principal opposition on the floor of the Assembly. However, the BRS was restricted to a niggardly 9 seats in the Lok Sabha elections held immediately within five months of its resounding victory.
Revanth Reddy began building his leadership within the Congress ever since he was elected the MP from India’s largest Lok Sabha constituency, Malkajgiri, as the Congress nominee.
Soon after he became the President of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC), Revanth Reddy began to consolidate the position of the party by boosting the morale of the cadres, bolstering their confidence about the party’s potential to wrest power from the BRS.
Instead of focusing on winning the by-elections that were held in five Assembly seats between 2018 and 2023, Revanth Reddy set his eyes on catapulting the Congress to power from a stage where it had lost its entire base.
After he trounced the BRS in the 2023 Assembly elections, Revanth Reddy started working on the State finances, which were left in a shambles by the BRS regime with a staggering debt burden of over Rs 8 lakh crore from being a revenue surplus State when Telangana was created in 2014.
In a steady manner, the Chief Minister implemented the electoral promises the Congress had made before the 2023 elections and realised many of the promises and won the trust of the people.
The first testament to his performance as the Chief Minister came in the form of victory in a byelection to the Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly seat, which fell vacant due to the death of a BRS MLA. This opened the account for the Congress in the State Capital, where it did not win even a single seat.
When the Lok Sabha elections were held, Revanth Reddy consolidated his position and also that of the Congress by winning eight out of the 17 seats, while the BJP won an equal number of seats and the MIM retained its lone Lok Sabha seat; leaving the BRS red-faced with zero seats.
Though the BJP won all three Lok Sabha seats, encompassing the areas of the State Capital, and the MIM retained its Hyderabad seat, Revanth Reddy reinforced the Congress consolidation winning the byelection to the Jubilee Hills Assembly seat, which fell vacant due to the death of another BRS MLA.
The Congress won the Jubilee Hills seat with a thumping margin of over 25,000 votes, inflicting a humiliating defeat to its nearest rival, the BRS, leaving the BJP to lose its deposits.
With renewed vigour, the Chief Minister led the Congress to yet another victory with many of the candidates supported by the Congress party winning about 70 per cent of the village panchayats which went to polls towards the end of 2025.
Posting a definitive victory and perching the Congress on an unassailable position in the civic bodies, the Chief Minister is steering the party to prove its dominance in the elections to be held soon for local bodies of mandal parishads and zilla parishads, followed by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Malkajgiri and Cyberabad municipal corporations. This will be followed by other civic bodies like Khammam, Warangal.
While the Congress is on a winning spree with resounding victories everywhere and every time, the BRS is grappling for its existence in Telangana.
Final tally:
INC & allies – Chairmen/Mayors 86, Deputy Mayors/vice-chairmen - 84
BRS - Chairmen 18, vice-chairmen - 14
BJP – Mayor/chairman 2, Deputy - 5
IND – 4 Chairman and 4 vice-chairmen
CPI – 1 mayor
AIFB – 1 chairman and 1 vice-chairman
CPM – 1 vice-chairman
AIMIM - 3 Vice-Chairmen/Dy Mayor
