Hyderabad: The Congress registered its four-decade-best performance in the Telangana region by securing 64 seats to dethrone the BRS, which was in power since 2014, capping a remarkable turnaround for the party that last registered a high of 58 seats in the region in the 1985 polls in erstwhile combined Andhra Pradesh.
The party, which was in power at the Centre and state during the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in June 2014, had hoped to win the hearts of the Telangana public in the 2014 polls, but shockingly, won just 21 seats then.
Suffering electoral defeats in all elections — Assembly polls, bypolls, GHMC elections, municipal elections and panchayat polls — to the BRS since Telangana was granted statehood, it perhaps suffered its low when seven legislators who had won on a Congress ticket in the 2018 polls defected to the BRS the same year, with another 12 defecting to the BRS in 2019.
It lost its prime Opposition status and at one point, seemed to have lost ground to the BJP after the saffron party won the Dubbak and Huzurabad bypolls, followed by a superb performance in the 2020 civic polls.
After A. Revanth Reddy took over the reins of the state Congress unit in June 2021, the party went from strength to strength. Buoyed by the party’s win in neighbouring Karnataka in May 2023, the Congress’ morale peaked as it managed to shift the momentum to Telangana to complete its remarkable turnaround.
While the Congress came to power in Karnataka on the back of Five Guarantees, it went one better, announcing Six Guarantees for Telangana, which received an overwhelming response from the electorate after Sonia Gandhi unveiled them at a public meeting in Tukkuguda.
Senior leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also boosted the party’s prospects by releasing declarations for multiple targeted sections, including youths, farmers, BCs and minorities, besides touring Telangana extensively and campaigning aggressively.
The Congress came to power in undivided AP in 1989, 2004 and 2009 polls, mainly on the strength of its numbers in Andhra and Rayalaseema. It can now add another feather to its grand old history, after securing the mandate of the Telangana electorate.
