Before electioneering in Telangana draws to a close on Tuesday, state Congress president A. Revanth Reddy has set a date for the swearing-in of the new government: December 9.

“The Congress government will take oath on December 9. The first file to be signed will be of the six guarantees,” the firebrand leader tells rally after rally.

December 9 is the birthday of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, and is also the date when then Union home minister P. Chidambaram announced in 2009 that the state of Telangana would be formed and set the official process in motion.

Reddy has picked not only the date but also the venue for the oath-taking: the L.B. Stadium, near the Assembly in Hyderabad.

His confidence has rubbed off on party colleagues, with most of them predicting the Congress will win more than 70 of the 119 seats in the state, where the Bharat Rashtra Samithi is in power. Reddy himself has predicted victory in 80 to 85 seats.

The BRS had won 88 seats in 2018, and only a big swing away from the party in the November 30 elections can make the prediction come true.

Chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao told an election rally on Sunday that he was not in politics for power and wanted to see “there is no poverty in Telangana and there should be 100 per cent literacy like Kerala”.

Congress rallies have begun reverberating with chants of “Bye, bye KCR”.

Two-and-a-half years after taking over as the state party chief, Reddy often finds himself compared to his Karnataka counterpart D.K. Shivakumar — who is also the deputy chief minister — in terms of hard work, organisational skills and impregnable confidence.

The third Assembly election in the country’s youngest state is being fought with a distinct Karnataka flavour. The thumping win of the Congress in the Karnataka Assembly polls in May has become a model for the party in every poll-bound state.

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, who made a second visit in just a few days, told a news conference in Hyderabad on Sunday he would be back again after the party wins when the ballots are counted on December 3.

“You take it from me, the BRS is going to lose. I will come here after the counting,” Siddaramaiah said, giving a point-by-point rebuttal of the BRS and BJP allegation that his government had failed to implement the five guarantees in Karnataka.

Siddaramaiah reeled out official data to show that crores of women had already availed of the free bus rides under the Shakti Yojane, 4.37 crore households were beneficiaries of the free rice scheme Anna Bhagya, 1.14 crore women were receiving Rs 2,000 in their bank accounts each month, and lakhs of households were already getting up to 200 monthly units of free electricity under the Gruha Jyothi. The Yuva Nidhi unemployment benefit will be rolled out in February 2024, he said.

He dared KCR to personally verify the official documents on the implementation of the guarantees in Karnataka.

The Congress has included six guarantees in its manifesto for Telangana, and the BRS has countered them with similar promises.

While the BRS and the BJP have both dismissively attributed the Congress’s self-confidence to social media hype, Congress leaders insist that the people want change.

AICC spokesperson Shama Mohammed said: “People are joining the Congress from the BRS and the BJP because they see a Congress wave.”

Observers have been predicting a close fight between the BRS and the Congress.

Asked how the Congress would muster the numbers if it became the largest party in a hung Assembly, Shama said: “There will be no hung Assembly.”

She drew inspiration from how Shivakumar had predicted 136 seats in Karnataka in May and ended up with 135, apart from a party-backed Independent.

The party’s internal surveys are giving a lot of hope, she said. “I can’t reveal the numbers now. But it’s way more than a majority. We will form the next government on our own,” she added.

The party spokesperson in Telangana, Sama Ram Mohan Reddy, said: “Our state president has been repeatedly saying that the Congress will come to power and the new government will take the oath on December 9, which is Madam Sonia Gandhi’s birthday and also the day when Chdambaram Garu announced that Telangana (state) would be a reality.”

He added: “We are all waiting for that historic day that would mark the initiation of the fulfilment of our aspirations for Telangana.”