Hyderabad: The Congress is aiming for a clean sweep in the local bodies elections on the back of its good performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls and by-elections to Assembly and MLC seats.
The state government plans to hold elections to gram panchayats, zilla parishads, mandal parishads and municipalities between July and September.
Except gram panchayat polls, all the other local body elections are fought on party symbols.
The ruling parties always enjoyed an advantage in local body elections. When BRS was in power, it swept the elections held in 2019 while the Congress was decimated. Ironically, those who won on the Congress ticket switched over to BRS later.
The Congress, which came to power in December, wants to derive the advantage of being the ruling party and make a clean.
However, the rise of BJP has become a cause of concern for the ruling party. In the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the BJP increased its vote share and tally.
In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the BRS vote share fell from 37 per cent to 16 per cent, while the BJP grabbed almost the entire vote share that the BRS lost and Congress gained by a modest two per cent.
However, the ruling Congress sees an edge over BJP in the local body elections given the feeling that BJP lacks strong leadership and cadre base in semi-urban and rural areas.
Congress has a strong presence and this could work in its favour.
The state Congress leadership feels that the fight will only be with BJP in the local bodies elections as the BRS has lost its relevance.
