The party's fate hinges on the effective implementation of the guarantees it had made to the people ahead of the Assembly elections.
Revanth Reddy has to consolidate his position in the state by winning a maximum number of Lok Sabha seats. (X)
Buoyed by its performance in the Telangana Assembly polls, the ruling Congress is hopeful of continuing its successful run in the upcoming Parliament election.
The party leaders are looking forward to capturing a majority of the Lok Sabha seats. The Congress has made a formal request to Sonia Gandhi to contest from Telangana.
If she consents, the party would be able to corner a majority of the seats because of the rub-off effect. The party high command has not yet clarified whether she would seek the mandate from Telangana.
If Sonia decides to contest, the party wants to suggest either Medak, which was represented by former prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1980, or Congress strongholds — Khammam or Nalgonda.
In fact, during the Assembly election campaign, AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi recalled her grandmother contesting from the state (then united Andhra Pradesh) and how she had retained Medak, vacating Rae Bareli.
The party won three Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 elections: Nalgonda, Bhongir, and Malkajgiri.
After the party won the Assembly elections decisively, the party leaders believed that the anti-incumbency factor that had brought down K Chandrashekar Rao’s regime would still have its effect, helping the Congress next year.
The Congress has already appointed in-charges for all the 17 Lok Sabha seats and the party machinery has begun rolling once again to surmount the BRS and BJP challenges at the hustings.
If the party does not flounder in delivering on its six promises in 100 days, the leaders believe that winning a maximum number of Lok Sabha seats in the state may not be a problem at all.
According to preliminary surveys, the Congress is expected to continue its winning streak and grab as many as 12 seats, wiping the BRS out as the BJP is poised to retain its four seats or may lose one at the most.
When the party announced the six guarantees, it was a gamble. The party leaders were unsure of how the people would respond to them. However, the elections proved that the electorate had faith in the party that it would deliver the promises.
With the A Revanth Reddy government implementing two of the promises — free travel to women on RTC buses and hiking the Arogya Shree medical insurance ceiling up to ₹10 lakh — the party leaders believe that the party’s credibility quotient has gone up. It explains why Revanth Reddy appears to be in a hurry to implement all guarantees in 100 days as promised.
He is aware that the BRS is biding its time for the Congress to falter and to go for its jugular. He has been holding back-to-back reviews and at the collectors’ conference on Sunday, he sounded dead serious about the implementation of the six promises.
He asked the officials to be ready to spend more than 18 hours a day to ensure the six guarantees reached the beneficiaries.
As his longevity as the chief minister also depends on his ability to steer the party to success in the Lok Sabha polls, he is leaving nothing to chance. He may soon fill the nominated posts to galvanise the party workers into action mode.
As of now, the workers are complacent and he wants them to get into action mode. Cutting any slack at this juncture would only end up with the BRS and the BJP taking full advantage.
According to one leader, the party’s strategy is to consolidate the gains the party has made and make inroads into BRS citadels. The party is also aware of the increasing acceptance of the BJP by the people.
The main worry is that in some Assembly segments, the BJP had won with a margin of more than 50,000 votes, and in Kamareddy, a local BJP man downed towering personalities like Chandrasekhar Rao and Revanth Reddy.
Political analyst Telakapalli Ravi said the outcome of the Lok Sabha polls will depend on the narrative that the national parties build.
“It will mostly be a fight between the BJP and the Congress across the nation. But in Telangana, they have to take on BRS as well. There are indications that the Congress will sustain its momentum after its victory in the Assembly elections. The surveys also point that the grand old party may pick up 10 to 12 seats which means that there would be a drastic cut in the BRS’s tally,” he said.
The Congress will also see a tough fight among its leaders for party tickets. Former MLA Mynapalli Hanumantha Rao has made it clear that he wants Medak if Sonia is not taking up the seat.
All the three Lok Sabha seats that the Congress held have fallen vacant now with Revanth Reddy (Malkajgiri), Komatireddy Venkatareddy (Bhongir), and N Uttam Kumar Reddy (Nalgonda) winning in the Assembly elections.
The party would now have to look for strong candidates in these three seats.
Among them, there seems to be no problem as far as Nalgonda is concerned as the party has a custom-made candidate Patel Ramesh Reddy.
He wanted to contest in the Assembly elections from Suryapet but the party gave the ticket to R Damodar Reddy, who lost. At that time, Rahul Gandhi himself promised the Nalgonda Lok Sabha seat to Patel Ramesh Reddy, if he withdrew from the contest, which he obliged.
The party will have to exercise caution as one of the senior leaders in Telangana, K Jana Reddy, wants to contest from Nalgonda. If not him, he wants the seat allotted to his son Raghuveer Reddy.
Similarly, Zaheerabad seat would have to go to former MP Suresh Shetkar who was denied an Assembly ticket from Narayankhed. Though the party promised him the Assembly seat, it fielded Patlolla Sanjiva Reddy, after promising the Lok Sabha seat to Suresh Shetkar. Sanjiv Reddy won the election.
Bhongir seat may go to TPCC vice- president Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy for sacrificing his home Assembly constituency Tungaturthy to Mandula Samel who won the seat. As it is a predominantly backward class constituency, the party might look beyond him for a potential BC leader.
The party is considering MLC T Jeevan Reddy for the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat. This is a seat that always attracts the attention of the entire state as it was once held by KCR’s daughter K Kavitha (2014-2019).
Jeevan Reddy unsuccessfully contested the recent Assembly from the Jagtiyal constituency. Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat is at present held by BJP’s Dharmpuri Arvind. The party is also looking for strong leaders for Peddapalli and Hyderabad.
The party, if it does not strike any alliance with the AIMIM, wants to give its best shot at Hyderabad and break the stranglehold of AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on the constituency.
For Khammam, there is competition among former Union minister Renuka Chowdary, Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy’s brother, and Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka’s wife.
The party is considering former Union minister Balaram Naik in Mahabubababad, and Praveen Reddy in Karimnagar since the latter was denied an Assembly ticket in Husnabad. Karimnagar is the constituency of BJP national secretary Bandi Sanjay Kumar.
In Warangal, party leaders Addanki Dayakar and former MP Siricilla Rajaiah are in the fray. Congress vice-president Mallu Ravi and former MLA SA Sampath Kumar are vying for Nagarkurnool.
Vamshichand Reddy is hoping to contest from Mahabubnagar, while former MP Anajan Kumar Yadav is expecting a ticket for him or his son Anil Kumar Yadav in Secunderabad. The constituency is now being represented by BJP state president and Union minister G Kishan Reddy.
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