Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 13: Amidst the BJP blitzkrieg in various elections across the nation, the ruling Congress demonstrated remarkable performance in the elections to the local self-government bodies, including municipalities and municipal corporations, in Telangana leaving its principal rival Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) far behind.
Out of the 2,689 seats whose results were declared, Congress candidates won in over 1,500 seats and the BRS candidates claimed victory in 765, according to Telangana State Election Commission data till Friday evening.
Though the BJP was expecting to make some serious dents, it was limited so far only to 286 Wards while the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul (AIMIM) bagged 59 Wards and CPI (M) 13.
The elected Councillors and Corporators will be sworn in at 11.30 a.m. on February 16. Following this, a special meeting will be held to elect Mayors and Deputy Mayors of the Corporations and Chairpersons and Vice-Chairpersons of Municipalities.
The counting process began with postal ballots, which was followed by regular ballots. Of the 52,17,413 eligible voters, 38,09,406 people exercised their franchise in the elections on Wednesday recording 73.01% voter turnout. The polls were held in 2,569 Wards in 116 Municipalities and 412 Wards in seven Municipal Corporations.
Following the party’s spectacular performance, the Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy received a pat from the party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
The BRS’s best performance was in Sangareddy district where it won majority in six municipalities while the Congress could capture five municipalities, while in Vikarabad district, the Congress tied with BRS in one municipality and claimed majority in three other.
