Congress to cements its position in Southern India with Telangana win

Congress dethroned Chandrasekhar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), who has been in power since 2014, when Telangana was granted statehood, by crossing the halfway mark.

K Chandrashekar Rao dream of hitting a hat trick was shattered as Congress' hand stops BRS' car ride.

As per the trends from the ECI, the Congress crossed the majority mark, leading on 65 seats in 119-member Telangana Assembly.The BRS is leading on 39 seats, BJP on 9, AIMIM on 5 and CPI on 1.

Congress workers raises slogans of 'CM-CM' in favour of state party president Revanth Reddy, as he arrived at the party office in Hyderabad after it became clear that Congress is winning the state with clear majority.

After a sweeping victory in Karnataka, Congress' guarantees in Telangana have proved to be a game changer for the party in Telangana, India's youngest state.

The guarantees covered cash transfers, pension schemes, free electricity, cylinders and land to a wide base of voters, from women and farmers to students and martyrs' families. These include: the 'Mahalakshmi', 'Rythu Bharosa', 'Gruha Jyothi', 'Indiramma Indlu', 'Yuva Vikasam' and 'Cheyutha' guarantees.

Following the 'Karnataka model' of campaigning after its massive win in the state, Congress has promised to provide free bus travel for women in Telangana while also providing Rs 2500 to women every month under Mahalaxmi Yojana. An LPG cylinder at Rs 500 is also among the promises under this scheme.The party has promised to provide 200 units of free electricity to every household and a pension of Rs 4,000 per month to the elderly.

The Rythu Bharosa (Farmer's Investment Support Scheme) guarantee pledges agricultural prosperity to the State's 58.33 lakh farmers, promising Rs15,000 annually to farmers and tenant farmers; Rs12,000 for agricultural labourers; and a Rs 500 bonus for farmers growing paddy crops.

Under the Yuva Vikasam scheme, a Vidya Bharosa card worth Rs 5 lakh for students' education will be provided and Telangana International Schools will be built in every division of the state.Land and assistance of Rs 5 lakh for the houses of homeless people in the state have been promised under the Indira Amma Indlu scheme.250 square yards of land for workers involved in the Telangana movement are also included in the scheme.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee President, Anumula Revanth Reddy is leading from the Kamareddy and Kodangal constituencies.

CM K Chandrashekar Rao is leading from the Gajwel seat but trailing on the Kamareddy seat to Congress' Revanth Reddy.

Revanth Reddy is MP in the Lok Sabha from INC representing Malkajgiri Constituency. Earlier, he won the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections in 2014 from the Kodangal seat with a vote share of 46.45 percent.

In the 2014 Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections, he again won the same seat with a vote share of 39.06 percent before losing the seat in the 2019 Telangana Assembly elections.

He left TDP and joined Congress in 2017.

In June 2021, he was appointed as president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee replacing N. Uttam Kumar Reddy.

Celebrations were seen outside the Congress office in Hyderabad over the party crossing the halfway mark comfortably. Party cadre chanted "Bye bye KCR".

Congress workers pour milk on a poster featuring Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, party MP Rahul Gandhi and state party chief Revanth Reddy as the party continues its lead in the state.

The Telangana election results are important for the Congress as it heads into the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. A win in Karnataka and Telangana would further concrete its presence in the South.

The Congress party, which is now in reckoning, was completely written off just six months ago. Several factors could have contributed to the Congress's upturn: Perceived anti-incumbency at the constituency level against BRS MLAs; energy infused by the Karnataka victory in the party leaders and cadres; the BJP's decline following the removal of Bandi Sanjay as the Telangana unit chief; and the perception that the BRS and AIMIM are in cahoots with the BJP.

The Congress campaign in Telangana picked up momentum after Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra and the party's victory in assembly polls in neighbouring Karnataka.

The three parties have made big promises in their manifestos.

One of the key BJP promises was to make a person from the Backward Class community a Chief Minister if the party gets support from the people of the state to form a government. The party has also reached out to various communities and the BJP-led central government last week set in motion the process of setting up a committee that will go into the issue of sub-categorizing the Madiga community within the Scheduled Castes. It has been a long-pending demand of the community.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders point out that the state's per capita income has seen a significant rise in the last 10 years due to efforts of the government and various welfare and development schemes will continue.

In the 2014 assembly polls in united Andhra Pradesh, the then-incumbent Congress got 25.20 per cent votes and BRS (then TRS) got 34 percent in the Telangana area.

Senior leaders of all parties including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda, Congress leaders Mallikurjan Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, BRS' KCR, KT Rama Rao and K Kavitha and AIMIM Asaduddin Owaisi ran strong campaigns in the state.

A total of 3.17 crore voters were eligible to exercise their franchise to elect legislators for a 119-member Assembly.

The fate of 2,290 candidates from 109 parties including the national and regional parties will be revealed as the counting proceeds. The contestants include 221 women and one transgender.

Meanwhile, the Congress has posed a strong commitment to the protection of its MLAs in Telangana.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar who is in Telangana as an AICC observer on Sunday spoke about the possibility of MLA poaching and said that not even a single MLA or candidate will break.

Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury said that Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) leaders are in touch with the grand old party.

BRS leaders are in touch with the Congress party

On being asked if BRS leaders are in touch with the Congress party, Renuka Chowdhury told ANI "Of course! Today's politics is like that. They are in touch with us. Sometimes they take away ours (MLAs), and sometimes theirs come here."

TPCC Vice President Kiran Kumar Chamala also spoke on the MLA poaching issue in Telangana and said that the party's MLAs will not be provoked.

"It's not the trend what we see this morning, these are the waves and positive vibrations in Telangana. The 6 guarantees that Sonia Gandhi has promised to the people of Telangana have turned the tide towards us. Poaching is one of the main agenda of KCR. We have taken some measurements. But after seeing the trends, we don't think it is needed. At least we'll have 80-plus seats. Our President Revanth Reddy is also leading. Everything is under control and our MLAs will not be provoked," TPCC Vice President said.

As the Congress crossed the majority mark in Telangana, party's Member of Parliament Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the party is on road to victory as we corrected the mistakes committed in 2014 and 2018 elections.

Uttam Kumar Reddy told ANI "Congress will form the government. The biggest reason for our win will be that the people of Telangana love the Gandhi family. There is a special place in their hearts. We made a mistake in the 2014 and 2018 elections. This time we corrected ourselves and are on the road to victory."

Telangana went to vote on November 30. In 2018, BRS (then Telangana Rashtra Samithi) won 88 of the 119 seats and had a 47.4 per cent vote share. The Congress came a distant second with 19 seats.