Hyderabad: Exuding confidence ahead of the Feb 11 municipal elections, chief minister A Revanth Reddy Tuesday told ministers that recent surveys showed little real competition for the Congress, with voters broadly satisfied with the govt’s welfare and development agenda.Addressing a meeting of ministers to firm up strategy for elections to 116 municipalities and seven municipal corporations, the CM said the party could win as many as 95% of the seats if ministers remained in the field and ensured coordinated booth-level teamwork.The meeting, attended by TPCC president B Mahesh Kumar Goud and AICC minder for Telangana, Meenakshi Natarajan, reviewed internal survey reports and feedback from ministers overseeing various urban local bodies (ULBs). Deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka and minister Adluri Laxman were absent as they were in their constituencies.Revanth underlined that the municipal polls were a ‘prestige issue’ for the party as they are being contested on party symbols.On the upswingSources said the CM pointed to clear signs of improvement in areas where the Congress had earlier struggled. He reportedly said the party’s graph had risen in Karimnagar municipal corporation, where it failed to win a single seat in the 2020 polls, and that a positive wave was visible in Nizamabad municipal corporation, a traditional stronghold of the BRS and BJP.Revanth told ministers that electoral success would depend on effective management and unity on the ground. He stressed the need to placate aspirants who were denied B-forms, politically neutralise rebels, coordinate between old and new leaders, bridge differences between loyalists and recent entrants from other parties, and prevent any split in the Congress vote.Ministers were directed to camp in the parliamentary constituencies allotted to them, hold daily meetings with local leaders, take the Congress govt’s welfare schemes and development work to people’s doorsteps, and submit daily reports to the CMO on each ULB.No deal with AIMIM: GoudMahesh Goud said there would be no alliance with the AIMIM in the municipal elections. However, he said the party had an understanding with the CPI, CPM and Telangana Jana Samithi in select wards and municipalities across some districts.The CM will resume his district tour on Wednesday, beginning with the foundation stone laying for a Young India Integrated Residential School at an estimated cost of Rs 200 crore, distribution of interest-free loans to women self-help group members, and a public meeting in Miryalguda in Nalgonda district. The tour coincides with the municipal election campaign.
