Hyderabad: In what was billed as a mid-term appraisal for the ruling Congress in Telangana, the party retained its hold in state politics with a handsome victory in elections to municipal bodies on Friday, February 13.The results for elections to 116 municipalities and seven municipal corporations which were held on Wednesday (February 11) showed Congress wresting 66 municipalities against 13 of the main opposition party Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS). The All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), under the election symbol of which party members of suspended BRS leader K. Kavitha-led Telangana Jagruthi activists contested, won the Waddepalli municipality in Mahbubnagar district. Kavitha is the daughter of BRS president and former chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao who has chartered her own political course after suspension from the party. As many as 36 municipalities showed hung bodies as no party got a clear majority.In all, the AIFB won in 33 out of 180 wards and divisions it contested in other municipalities and corporations respectively, a statement of Jagruthi said.In the polls to the seven municipal corporations, the picture was different. Congress won 191 out of 414 divisions in these corporations, the BJP 76 and BRS 63. The BRS was nowhere in the contest for mayoral posts for lack of majority in winning the required divisions. The Congress had a clear majority in the corporations of Ramagundam, Mancherial, Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar but ceded its position to the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in Kothagudem and Nizamabad respectively. The CPI and AIMIM are parties friendly to the Congress.The CPI state secretary K. Sambasiva Rao told The Wire that the BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao had called him up and extended unconditional support to a CPI candidate to be the mayor of Kothagudem. Rao said the CPI would stake a claim for the post. However, there was no word from AIMIM on Nizamabad where the BJP was the single-largest party with 28 newly elected corporators but Congress and AIMIM together won 31 divisions.A source in AIMIM said a decision will be taken by the party president Asaduddin Owaisi before the scheduled election of the mayors on February 16.The BJP was the undisputed winner in the Karimnagar corporation, leaving the BRS without any say in all the bigger towns that went to polls. Elections, however, are still due in Hyderabad where the municipal body was recently split into three corporations, and also the Warangal and Khammam corporations. The term of the elected body of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) ended on February 10 while that of Warangal and Khammam are incomplete.Gram panchayat elections showed the wayThe results were a consolidation of electoral gains by the Congress in the polls to gram panchayats across the state on December 17. The party also won two assembly by-elections after its victory in the November 2023 assembly polls with a 39.4% vote share, which was nearly 11% higher than the previous elections in 2018.The Congress had gained significant traction in southern districts of the state, mainly Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda, in assembly elections, and it has continued till date – as seen in gram panchayat polls where the party-backed candidates won in nearly 65% villages. The elections to panchayats took place on a non-party basis but the winners were identifiable by their party affiliations. On the other hand, the BRS has not shown resurgence expected of it while the BJP had made very limited forays despite the party president Nitin Nabin and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis participating in the party’s campaign for municipal polls.According to political analyst Telakapalli Ravi, the Congress won the polls outright despite the BRS playing the Andhra card against Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy by projecting the latter as a proxy of his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N. Chandrababu Naidu. The results also showed that the BRS did not recover its ground adequately even in urban areas after losing badly in gram panchayats.A former editor K. Srinivas said the results were an endorsement of the performance of Congress government and the BRS not recovering from its downslide which began in the last assembly elections. It showed that there was no impactful anti-incumbency against the government.Another veteran journalist Devulapalli Amar said the Congress won the elections as ruling parties always having an advantage in local body polls. However, the real test was reserved for Monday (February 16) when the elections of mayors of corporations and chairpersons of municipalities is scheduled. It will be a big boost to the Congress if it wins over independents and other opposition candidates to its side, especially in places where the contests were close, said Amar.Party equationsThe CM Reddy had, in an informal chat with reporters in New Delhi on Thursday (February 12), reportedly claimed that he was the “all in all” of the Congress government in Telangana. He was said to have remarked that he was both the “king” and the “minister” whether it was in politics or in his personal life. He also reportedly said that there was no competition for him as he was in competition with himself. The remark raised quite a few eyebrows in political circles and came close on the heels of his repeated targeting of BRS, particularly former chief minister Chandrasekhar Rao, and the BJP in the state, led by Union ministers G. Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay Kumar.Reacting to the results, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said the Congress stood to win the chairpersonship in 83 of the 116 municipalities as the independent candidates who won were inclined to vote for the party. In a statement released in New Delhi, Revanth Reddy said the results were a reflection of good governance by the Congress in the last two years.According to the final results declared by the State Election Commission late at night, Congress became the largest party in the municipal polls winning 1,347 (52%) of the 2,582 wards in 116 municipalities. The party had fared poorly in the municipal polls held last during the BRS regime in 2016. The BRS was second now with 716 wards (27%) while the BJP won 261 (10.10%) and the remaining 257 wards went to other parties comprising the CPI, CPI (M), AIMIM, AIFB and independents.Both the Congress and the BRS have targeted the 36 municipalities which have returned hung bodies to bolster their chances of cornering chairpersonship by wooing independents and rival party winners. The parties have moved their winning candidates to camps to keep their flock together till Monday when the indirect election of mayors and chairpersons will be held. The camps were organised at resorts on Hyderabad outskirts for all districts except Adilabad. Those elected from Adilabad in either party were shifted to secret locations in Maharashtra. It was no surprise, therefore, that Bhatti Vikramarka expressed hope of Congress winning 83 municipalities in this background.The BJP state president N. Ramchander Rao ruled out the party’s support to rivals in hung bodies. He expressed satisfaction that the people’s mandate helped BJP emerge as an alternative to the Congress in the next assembly elections.The BRS was visibly handicapped in the electioneering as its star campaigner and president Chandrasekhar Rao was out of action. The campaign was handled by his son and working president K.T. Rama Rao and nephew T. Harish Rao instead. Rama Rao reacted to the results saying the local body elections were always in favour of the ruling parties. He said that the Congress should have won 80 to 90% seats but ended up with just about 50% wards.