HYDERABAD: Congress leaders and workers have made a beeline to TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy's residence in Jubilee Hills on Friday to congratulate him after a majority of exit polls predicted victory for the Congress in the Assembly elections.
Several Congress candidates, who contested Assembly polls, also met Revanth Reddy and shared details about their winning prospects. Senior leaders Mallu Ravi, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Malreddy Ranga Reddy, and A. Chandrashekar were among those who met the PCC chief.
A jubilant mood prevailed at his residence as scores of Revanth Reddy's supporters raised "CM Revanth" slogans. They said the exit polls will be repeated on the day of election results on December 3 and expressed confidence that the Congress government led by Revanth Reddy as the Chief Minister will assume office on December 9.
Revanth Reddy along with senior Congress leaders reviewed polling percentage and trend constituency-wise. They discussed the party's plans and strategies in the event of Congress getting a clear majority or the voters giving a hung verdict on December 3.
The meeting went on for over about three hours in which the senior leaders took stock of the party's situation in every Assembly constituency. They obtained details from booth-level committee members, party's mandal, constituency and district incharges on the polling trend in all the 119 Assembly constituencies in 33 districts.
After analysing all the reports, the leaders reportedly felt that the Congress would secure a clear majority and form the government on its own. Despite this, the party leaders discussed Plan-B in the event of a hung Assembly.
Party sources said that if the Congress secures a clear majority, all the newly-elected MLAs will be asked to come to Hyderabad soon after they receive their election certificate on December 3. In the event of a hung Assembly, then the party is planning to shift the MLAs to Bengaluru to prevent poaching of its MLAs by the BRS.
The Congress suffered huge blows at the hands of the BRS after the 2014 and 2018 Assembly polls. The Congress won 21 seats in 2014, but seven of them joined the BRS. In the 2018 elections, the Congress won 19 seats but 12 of them joined the BRS within six months due to which the Congress even lost principal opposition status in the Legislative Assembly.
The BRS engineered defections in Congress in 2014 and 2018 though it had clear majority on both the occasions. In the event of hung Assembly this time, the Congress leadership expects the BRS to go even more aggressive to poach the Congress MLAs to secure power. To prevent recurrence of such instances, the Congress leadership is adopting a more cautious approach this time.
