The bustle outside the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) office in the heart of the city is in sync with the party’s expectations of carrying on the momentum achieved in the state elections five months ago when it ended the Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s reign.

Nearly a hundred workers of the Telugu Desam Party — anyway decimated to a minor player in Telangana — have been waiting for nearly an hour braving the 41°C heat to add to the election buzz in the state where the Congress expects a big win.

Telangana Congress working president T. Jagga Reddy and state planning board vice-chairman and former minister G. Chinna Reddy first spoke to them before welcoming them to the party by offering stoles at the steps to the TPCC office.

“This is just a continuation of the flow of leaders and workers from all other
parties, including the BJP and BRS, to the Congress ever since we proved our
might in Telangana by ending the repressive KCR government,” Jagga Reddy told The Telegraph.

The Congress, led by A. Revanth Reddy, won 64 of the 119 seats in the November-December state polls, ending the hat-trick dream of BSR and its chief K. Chandrashekar Rao — better known as KCR.

While the BSR (Bharat Rashtra Samithi) won 39 seats, the BJP managed 8 and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen won 7 while Congress ally CPI won a lone seat.

This inflow of leaders and grassroots workers of other parties, according to Jagga Reddy, would be in good stead for the Congress to win a majority of the
17 Lok Sabha seats at stake in the southern state.

“The only question is how many seats can we win this time,” said a confident Jagga Reddy.

The Congress could manage just three seats in 2019, against the nine won by BRS and four by the BJP. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen retained their Hyderabad seat that it had never lost since the early 1950s.

But Jagga Reddy was quite candid about the BJP improving its chances at the cost of BRS. “At the start of the lead-up to the elections our expectation was in the range of 12 to 14 seats. But now it has scaled down to nine to 12 seats.”

A rare admission of shrinking fortunes from any politician, Jagga Reddy admitted that the reason was the BJP’s spin on the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

“They have managed to spin the Ayodhya Ram temple as an effective election issue in Telangana. That alone seems to have helped the BJP improve its chances by pushing the BRS to third position,” said the senior leader.

The considerably large migrant population from northern states, especially Rajasthan, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, who have made Telangana their home for decades, along with some Telugus appear to have lapped up the Ram temple.

But he didn’t rule out Congress beating all expectations with days to go for the May 13 elections in the state.

“Our guarantees have been very popular, especially among the women who benefit from free bus rides and subsidised cooking gas. I am sure the guarantees will play a big role in this election,” he said.

The inflow of established leaders from rival parties, especially the BRS, has provided a huge boost for the Congress in the state. Senior BRS leaders like its parliamentary party leader K. Keshava Rao had defected to the Congress after the Assembly election debacle.

Three MLAs — Kadiyam Srihari from Station Ghanpur, T. Venkat Rao from Bhadrachalam and Danam Nagender from Khairatabad — had defected to
the Congress. Several other BRS MLAs have already met chief minister A. Revanth Reddy.

“Around 30 BRS MLAs are ready to join the Congress after the Lok Sabha elections,” said Jagga Reddy.

This amounts to an enhanced ground-swell in favour of the Congress. “When these BRS leaders are ready to join us, they will naturally support our candidates,” said the working president, who has been a busy man since the state president is the chief minister himself.

Telangana votes on May 13