Upbeat Congress Hopes to Bag 12-14 Seats As Telangana Goes to Polls Tomorrow
HYDERABAD: The Congress appears to be in an upbeat mood ahead of Monday’s Lok Sabha elections. It is confident of winning double digit seats out of the 17 that are up for grabs in Telangana state.
TPCC president and Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, who has set a target of winning 12-plus seats, has shouldered the responsibility of ensuring the party's victory in most seats by undertaking extensive campaigning in all the 17 constituencies. Incidentally, he was the only star campaigner across all seats, while ministers and senior leaders were confined to their respective districts or constituencies of which they were the in-charges.
Revanth Redd's aggressive campaign against the alleged plans of the BJP and RSS to amend the constitution and abolish reservations for SCs, STs and OBs, if re-elected to power, were national headlines.
In a way, he set the agenda for the elections with this aggression that forced other parties and contenders to follow suit. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah had to repeatedly clarify that the BJP would not scrap reservations but only abolish reservations for Muslims.
Revanth Reddy's "gadida guddu" (donkey's egg) campaign also created a buzz. He displayed models of 'gadida guddu' in every election meeting that he addressed and took a dig at the BJP-led Union government for doing nothing for Telangana state in the last ten years.
Reddy shuttled between two to three districts every day and addressed three to four election rallies and road shows daily from April 6 when the party central leadership launched the national manifesto. He addressed a massive public meeting at Tukkuguda in the city outskirts which was attended by AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi.
In between, Revanth Reddy also campaigned in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka for Congress candidates. He has participated in 57 election rallies and road shows since April 6.
The Congress won just three Lok Sabha seats in Telangana state, namely Nalgonda, Bhongir and Malkajgiri in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It was decimated by BRS, the then ruling party.
The morale of Congress is on a high after dethroning the BRS government in recent Assembly polls. Now the Congress is confident of winning 12 to 14 seats having implemented five out of six guarantees promised during the Assembly polls.
The Congress has pinned its hopes on beneficiaries of free bus travel scheme, subsidised gas cylinders, free power to households up to 200 units and Rs 10 lakh health insurance cover under Rajiv arogyasri.