Hyderabad: The mood is upbeat at the 2-day CWC (Congress Working Committee) meet here with the leaders sounding unmistakeably confident of regaining power this year in Telangana, one of the key southern states.
Earlier in May, the Congress rode to power in Karnataka on the strength of its five guarantees. It has added a sixth guarantee to the promises kitty to gain an advantage over the ruling Bharata Rashtra Samithi (BRS). "These guarantees are part of the essence taken out of Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra. The people of Karnataka wanted it. Now the people of Telangana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and other States are wanting the same," said Congress media head Pawan Khera, in reply to a question at a media confrence on the sidelines of CWC second day.
Experts say the Congress is betting big on South where the BJP appears relatively disadvantaged considering various political equations and after its crushing defeat in the only southern state where it was in power - Karnataka. The huge electoral victory in Karnataka elections in May this year had put the Congress on a sort of comeback trail in south India and it served as a big boost for the grand old party coming just five months after the much- needed win in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections in December 2022.
Now, the crucial CWC meet in Hyderabad in the last two days had in no uncertain terms indicated how much the Congress is going to rely on the southern states to reopen its path to regain power at the Centre. In this grand design, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge hatched a master strategy to put Hyderabad in the spotlight. Reclaiming Telangana is considered crucial to regaining Centre.
All said and done, it was the then Congress government which had given statehood to Telangana in 2014 but, much to the surprise of its top leaders, all the credit and subsequent electoral victories in 2014 and 2018 went to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Underscoring the significance of Telangana, Kharge had drawn a strong plan for greater connect with people here. After the extended CWC meet on second day, Kharge is sending all the CWC members, MPs, chiefs of Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs) of different states and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leaders are being sent to all the 119 Assembly constituencies in the State on Monday.
It goes without saying how CWC meet raised a lot of Congress hopes on South Indian states. As Congress former chief of Telangana Uttam Kumar Reddy put it, the CWC meet in Hyderabad is historic for the Congress considering the euphoria that has been created around this by the party top leadership.
"People believe in Congress guarantees. We'll implement the six guarantees within the first 100 days of forming the government. Both PCC and CLP will give assurance on the guarantee cards," said Telangana PCC President Revanth Reddy.
Congress apparently wants to hurt the BJP where it hurts the most, which is in South India. Anti-BJP parties like the DMK and the Left Front are ruling in Tamil Nadu and Kerala respectively. Itself has come back to power in Karnataka. In Telangana, it is the main opposition and immediate contender for power. The BJP is struggling in Telangana and has nominal presence in Andhra Pradesh. The race for maximum seats in South is strongly felt among the Congress leaders here.
