HYDERABAD
The ruling Congress is resorting to malpractices, undemocratic methods and anarchy for the election of municipal chairpersons and mayors by forcibly admitting those elected on other party tickets or by threatening them, general secretary of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and former IPS officer R.S. Praveen Kumar said.
Speaking to newspersons here on Sunday, he said the Congress could win only four municipalities in 2020 and this time the BRS had polled about 30% votes. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy was ridiculing the democracy by keeping the key portfolios such as home, municipal administration, education and others with him.
The fact that the entire municipal election process was completed within one week was clearly indicating why Mr. Revanth Reddy was keeping the home and municipal administration portfolios with him. The realty sector was in doldrums as he was keeping the municipal portfolio with him.
He alleged that the State Election Commission had become a puppet in the hands of the government as it could not even serve a notice on Mr. Revanth Reddy even after he asked the voters in Vikarabad to support Congress and the BRS lodging a complaint on it. Similarly, there were incidents involving TPCC working president T. Jagga Reddy and MP Dharmapuri Arvind at Sangareddy and Nizamabad on the day of polling attracting notices from SEC, but in vain.
A case was registered against Mr. Jagga Reddy in the evening for namesake. Despite sending money bags, the ruling party could win hardly 51% of wards, Mr. Praveen Kumar alleged. He further alleged that the Chief Minister was sending police to BRS camps by identifying locations through phone-tapping.
Dande Vittal, a BRS MLC defected to the Congress, was provided an ex-officio vote in Kagaznagar though he did not vote there since he had his vote registered in the Sanathnagar Assembly Constituency in the city. He demanded that the election to municipal chairpersons and mayors be held transparently.
Published – February 15, 2026 09:18 pm IST
