Hyderabad: The main political parties, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are all claiming premature victories in the forthcoming municipal elections and are preparing for a show of strength.
The TRS and the Congress are jubilant at the Jharkhand Assembly results.
The BJP says the Jharkhand Assembly results and the recent Huzurnagar Assembly by-election in Telangana, in both of which it lost, will not influence the municipal elections.
BJP MLC and Hyderabad city unit president N. Ramachandra Rao said, “People think that the BJP is the alternative to the TRS in Telangana state and the Congress is nowhere in the picture.”
Speaking to this newspaper he said the defeat in Jharkhand was because of the anti-incumbency factor, and Huzurnagar was the weakest constituency of the BJP out of 119 seats “and we fought the by-election as symbolic”.
Mr Ramachandra Rao said said that in the municipal elections the fight will be with the TRS and definitely the BJP will put up a good show.
Ten municipal corporations and 120 Municipalities are going to the polls on January 22, 2020 in Telangana. The TRS and the Congress are depending on the countrywide agitations by the people against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) brought by the BJP-led NDA government at the centre.
Both parties opposed the citizen amendment bill in Parliament and are hoping it will benefit them politically in the Municipal elections.
The BJP hopes the anti-incumbency factor will oust the TRS in the municipal elections.
Muslim voters are in significant numbers in municipalities and municipal corporations.
TRS MLC Karne Prabhakar expressed the hope that his party will win all the 120 Municipalities and 10 Municipal Corporations.
The opposition Congress is also depending on the anti-incumbency factor to work in its favour at both state and central levels as the BJP at the centre and TRS in the state have been in power for the last six years.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy said that the state government has failed to provide basic facilities such as roads, drinking water, drainage, sewerage system etc. He said that the condition of civic amenities in Municipalities and Municipal Corporations is pathetic. He said the Chief Minister has not honoured his own words and he questioned the status of the promises made by the CM to the people of Warangal, Karimnagar and other cities.
