KT Rama Rao confident of retaining hold on GHMC

Hyderabad: The GHMC elections slated to be held in November will prove to be a major challenge for three leaders -- Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao, who had successfully led the polls last time by winning 99 wards, Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy and T Congress working president A Revanth Reddy.

KTR, who has been holding a series of meetings on the polls for the past few weeks, is confident of winning in around 100 out of 150 wards this time again. Kishan Reddy and Revanth Reddy are desperate to show their political might in their Lok Sabha segments - Secunderabad and Malkajigiri.

The confidence of KTR comes from the past performance and also because of the continued winning spree of the party in the just concluded Panchayat, Mandal, Zilla Parishad and 140 municipal body elections in the state.

KTR instructed his party MLAs, party cadre and division members to take up a campaign about the developmental programmes and welfare schemes launched by the government and how it had transformed Greater Hyderabad in the last five years since the TRS took over the Corporation. The party is also assessing the performance of each ward member and their winning chances and process of selection was almost complete.

The non-performing incumbent elected division members have been hinted that they will be replaced by new faces.

Ministers, MLAs, MLCs, Corporation Chairmen and TRS leaders will be given the responsibility of campaign in every division.

Eyeing to emerge victorious by winning a majority wards as against four won in the last elections, the BJP has decided to entrust the responsibility to Union minister Kishan Reddy so that the party can increase their number of wards. Nearly 50 wards fall in Kishan Reddy's Secunderabad Lok Sabha segment. The saffron party has set a tall order of trying to win 40 out these 50 wards. If it succeeds, it feels that it will have advantage and can play a key role in Greater Hyderabad politics during the next Assembly elections.

Telangana Congress leader Revanth Reddy, who received a big blow in the recently held elections to the municipal bodies which come under his Malkajigiri Lok Sabha segment, wants to make all-out efforts to win a significant number of seats in all the four Municipal Corporations and nine municipalities. The problem with the Congress is that it had won only two wards in the last elections and still is a divided house.

It is being alleged that Revanth had started street campaign and finalising the candidates on his own without consulting the party in-charges and TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy. The Malkajigiri Lok Sabha segment has 48 wards. Revanth is also preparing division-level manifestos to lure the local voters. The Old city has 50 wards and TRS sources say that they are mostly in the hands of AIMIM. They feel that the Congress and BJP were day dreaming of making it big in the elections.