CM eyes landslide win in municipal elections

Hyderabad: Chief Minister Anumula Revanth Reddy on Thursday said that the Congress should win all municipalities and municipal corporations for which elections would be held soon.

Addressing the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee’s extended office-bearers meeting in the Gandhi Bhavan, the Chief Minister said that the Congress had won 66 per cent of sarpanch posts in the recent Gram Panchayat elections and now the party should score a bigger and resounding victory in the upcoming urban local body polls. “I am ready to take part in door-to-door campaigns for the victory of the Congress in the elections as the party made me the Chief Minister of the Telangana state,” the Chief Minister said.

Revanth Reddy said that Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi would be invited to a mammoth public meeting to be organised in Mulugu. The Congress party will organize public meetings in nine districts from February 3 in the state in the run up to the elections, the Chief Minister said.In a sharp attack on the Union government for replacing the MGNREGA scheme with a new scheme, Revanth Reddy said that 80 per cent of the 140-crore population in the country were the beneficiaries of the employment guarantee scheme introduced by the previous Congress government at the Centre.

Now, the Modi government is troubling the poor by changing the policy. “During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP conspired to change the Constitution if it won 400 seats. But Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge travelled across the country and alerted the people about the danger. Congress party also prevented the BJP from handing over the country to Adani and Ambani by restricting it to 240 seats in Lok Sabha,” he said.

Pointing out that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme enhanced self-respect of the poor, Revanth alleged that changes were made to the scheme to provide cheap labour to big corporates like Ambani and Adani groups. “There is a confusion even in the name of the VB-G RAM G (Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission) scheme brought by the Modi government to replace MGNREGS. Where is 'Viksit Bharat' (Developed India) in the country?”, he asked.

“We will fight until the MGNREGS is restored. We will make Modi apologize to the country on this matter. The Telangana Assembly has already adopted a unanimous resolution protesting the changes to the popular scheme. State MPs should also protest on the first day of the Budget session of the parliament,” he said.

The Chief Minister called upon the party leaders to organize Gram Sabhas in all villages from January 20 to 30 and pass a resolution against the new law. “MLAs should take responsibility in all constituencies. I will also take responsibility for one mandal,” he said.

Coming down heavily on the Modi government for introducing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, he said that the BJP government launched the SIR to remove the rights of the poor and minorities in the name of voter purification. The CM warned that if the poor lose their votes, they will be deprived of ration cards, Aadhaar cards and welfare benefits.