Telangana panchayat polls: Congress candidates bag 7,527 seats, rebels add 808, says CM Revanth

Hyderabad: In the three-phase gram panchayat elections, Congress-backed candidates won 7,527 seats while Congress rebels secured 808 seats, making a collective win of 8,335 panchayats, said Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy about the gram panchayat elections in Telangana.

“This is a 66 per cent success rate,” he said, terming the results a ‘referendum on two years of people-centric governance,’ claiming that rural Telangana has endorsed the Congress’s welfare agenda.

Gram Panchayat elections

While the total number of gram panchayats in Telangana is 12,702, the Congress party has secured 66 per cent of the seats in the elections.

The Assemblies, which cover the gram panchayats, show that from the 94 Assembly constituencies, in 87 seats, the Congress performance has been good.

The Opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi led in 6 seats while the Bharatiya Janata Party led in one. CM Revanth said, “The BJP and BRS have a secret coalition and have managed to get 33 per cent in the total seats.”

The 2025 Gram Panchayat elections were a high-stakes battle for grassroots control in Telangana. Here is the context that shaped this electoral cycle:

1. The ‘First Major Test’ after 2023: These were the first local body elections held since the Congress took power in December 2023. Historically, the party in power at the state level tends to perform well in local polls, but the 2025 elections were seen as a crucial test of whether the ‘Revanth Reddy wave’ and the ‘Six Guarantees’ still held sway in rural heartlands.

2. A Three-Phase Battle: The elections were conducted in three phases on December 11, 14, and 17, 2025. Despite being technically ‘party-less’ (candidates do not use party symbols on the ballot), all major political parties—Congress, BRS and the BJP—voted heavily in favour of ‘supported’ candidates, turning it into a proxy war for political dominance.

3. The BC Reservation Factor: The lead-up to the polls was marked by a significant legal and political debate over BC (Backward Classes) Reservations. The Congress government moved to increase BC reservations in local bodies to 42 per cent, a move that was challenged in the High Court but ultimately allowed the election process to proceed. This became a major campaign plank for the Congress to consolidate the BC vote.

4. Financial Implications: The elections were urgent because the absence of elected local bodies had led to the withholding of nearly Rs 3,000 crore in Central Finance Commission grants. With newly elected Sarpanches set to take office on December 22, these funds are expected to be released for village development.

5. High Stakes for BRS and BJP: For the BRS, these elections were a struggle for survival at the village level following their 2023 Assembly defeat and a poor 2024 Lok Sabha showing. For the BJP, it was an attempt to prove that their Lok Sabha gains could translate into a permanent rural footprint in Telangana.

The 7th Guarantee

Attributing the win of the gram panchayat elections to ‘six guarantees’ of the Congress government and also the welfare measures, CM Revanth Reddy said, “My government has also given the 7th Guarantee: Freedom. These elections were conducted in a free and democratic atmosphere without official interference, which has not been seen in the previous regime.”

MGNREGA scheme

The renaming of the MGNREA scheme was strongly opposed by the CM. He said, “The Central government is trying to dilute history by renaming the MGNREGA scheme.”

‘More toxic than Musi’

He also took a dig at the BRS leaders, saying, ‘The poison in some hearts is more toxic than the pollution in the Musi River.”

‘Direct challenge to KCR’

CM Revanth Reddy said, “I am ready for a special Assembly session. Let KCR write a letter as the Leader of the Opposition, and we will prove with evidence how the BRS betrayed Telangana’s interests.”