HYDERABAD
The ruling Congress is resorting to malpractices, undemocratic methods and anarchy in the election of municipal chairmen and mayors by forcibly accepting or threatening those elected on tickets of other parties, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) general secretary and former IPS officer RS Praveen Kumar said.
Talking to reporters here on Sunday, he said that Congress can win only four municipalities in 2020 and this time BRS got about 30% votes. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy made a mockery of democracy by keeping key portfolios like home, municipal administration, education and others with him.
The fact that the entire municipal election process was completed within a week clearly indicated why Mr. Revanth Reddy is keeping the Home and Municipal Administration portfolio with him. The real estate sector was in the doldrums as it kept the municipal portfolio to itself.
He alleged that the State Election Commission has become a puppet in the hands of the government as it could not even alert Mr. Revanth Reddy even after he asked the voters in Vikarabad to support the Congress and the BRS which had lodged a complaint against him. Similarly, there were incidents involving TPCC working president T. Jagga Reddy and Dharmapuri MP Arvind in Sangareddy and Nizamabad on polling day which attracted attention from the SEC but to no avail.
In the evening a case was filed against Mr. Jagga Reddy for viz. Despite sending bags of money, the ruling party could barely win 51% of the wards, claimed Mr. Praveen Kumar. He further alleged that the Chief Minister was sending police to BRS camps by identifying the locations through wiretaps.
Dande Vittal, a BRS MLC who defected to the Congress, was given an ex-officio poll in Kagaznagar, though he did not vote there as he had registered his vote in Sanathnagar Assembly constituency in the city. He demanded that the election of village presidents and mayors take place transparently.
Published – 15 Feb 2026 21:18 IST