TRS confident of good show in urban polls in T'gana; Cong, BJP

The ruling TRS in Telangana is confident of repeating its stellar performance in the Assembly polls in the municipal elections, expected to beheld in the state in about a month, while the opposition Congress and BJP are keen on improving their strength.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi had returned to power with a thumping majority in the Assembly elections held in December last year.

It won nine of the total 17 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.

But, the Lok Sabha were seen somewhat as a setback to the ruling party as it was expected to bag at least 13-14 seats.

Especially, the defeat of sitting TRS MP and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Raos daughter K Kavitha in Nizamabad came as a disappointment to the party.

However, TRS continued its dominance in the subsequent rural local body polls, bagging all the Zilla Parishad chairman posts.

"We are prepared. We definitely expect to do well. The state government came to power only recently. We got positive vote for our previous four year rule (assembly polls were held prematurely). The same will continue," TRS MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy told PTI.

The BJP held a meeting of its key leaders on Tuesday and discussed preparations for the municipal elections, among other issues.

Having made impressive gains in the Lok Sabha polls (winning four of the 17 seats), BJP is confident that it would do well in the municipal elections.

The party has traditionally done well in urban areas compared to the rural.

The party, which has ambitious growth plans in Telangana, is focused on winning the maximum number of municipalities among the total 136, BJP MLC N Ramachander Rao told PTI.

The key party leaders, who attended the meeting on Tuesday, would begin identifying suitable candidates, he said.

The Congress last week held a meeting of its important leaders at Nagarjuna Sagar and discussed preparations for the municipal elections.

AICC in-charge of party affairs in Telangana R C Khuntia told PTI last week that local committees comprising candidates who contested as MP, MLA, local municipality or town president, the District Congress Committees would decide the candidates for the urban local bodies.

The party has decided to let the local leaders play a major role in the exercise for the municipal polls, according to him.