The results of Telangana’s recent rural local body (RLB) polls, covering elections to gram panchayats for sarpanches and ward members, should not come as a surprise. Congress-backed candidates secured a clear majority of the seats, crossing the 50% mark. This outcome is in keeping with a longer political tradition in the State — and earlier in undivided Andhra Pradesh — where the ruling party has generally done well in rural local body elections. This pattern stands in contrast to States such as Kerala, where RLB polls are more competitive and less tilted towards the incumbent. There are several reasons for this pattern in Telangana. Chiefly, the linkage between State-led rural welfare delivery and local bodies, combined with the alignment of rural elites with the party in power — in this case, the first Congress government of the State led by first-time Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy. While RLB elections are, in theory, non-partisan, political parties have always backed candidates, and provided campaign resources, making these contests de facto party elections.
In Telangana’s case, local body polls were held for the first time in 2019 after the State’s creation in 2014. The TRS bagged over 7,000 gram panchayats, with the Congress a distant second (about 2,700 seats). The outcome underlined the extent to which the incumbent party had consolidated rural political power through welfare delivery. Against this backdrop, the present outcome suggests that some of the Congress’s poll promises have begun to find resonance. Chief among them is the Rythu Bharosa scheme, which provides an annual direct cash benefit of ₹12,000 per acre for land under cultivation, along with an equivalent annual assistance for landless agricultural households. This working capital support builds on the Rythu Bandhu scheme of the BRS, which had offered ₹10,000 annually, but limited it to landowners. The elections were also held against the backdrop of the non-implementation of 42% reservation for Backward Classes (BC) in local bodies, passed by the State Legislature following the 2024 caste survey but stalled by a High Court order. While the case did not dominate campaign discourse, most parties including the Congress fielded a higher number of BC candidates, signalling an attempt at greater social representation. This, along with some progress on government recruitment, appears to have buttressed the incumbent. It may be a stretch to call the RLB verdict a referendum on a two-year-old government. But to ignore its political message would be foolhardy, particularly for the principal Opposition, the BRS, which continues to search for a durable rural counter-narrative.
Published – December 20, 2025 12:10 am IST
