Telangana: Congress continues to do well in second round of panchayat elections

Telangana: governing Congress party gained the majority of seats in the second round of the Gram Panchayat elections, continuing its strong showing.

On Sunday, elections were conducted for 4,333 Sarpanch positions, and candidates supported by the Congress won 2,216 seats.

With 1,177 seats, the major opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) came in second. With 259 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came in far third. 619 seats were gained by independents and others.

Up to 11 p.m. on Sunday, the results for 4,271 seats were announced.

In 193 mandals, 3,911 Sarpanch positions and 29,917 Ward Member positions were up for election on Sunday.

Under strict security, the polling started at 7 a.m. and ended at 1 p.m. Vote counting began at 2:00 p.m.

To choose the destiny of 12,782 candidates for Sarpanch positions and 71,071 candidates for Ward Member positions, 85.86 percent of the 57.22 lakh voters (29.26 lakh women and 27.96 lakh men) cast ballots.

The State Election Commission (SEC) has issued notifications for 38,350 Ward Member positions and 4,333 Sarpanch positions under the second round of elections. Of these, 8,307 ward members and 415 sarpanch candidates were elected without opposition. For the 108 Ward Member positions, no candidates were submitted.

Eighteen Wards and two Gram Panchayats did not hold elections.

30,661 staff members and 4,593 returning officers were sent by the SEC to administer the second round of elections. The poll procedure was supervised by 2,489 micro-observers.

3,834 Sarpanches, 27,346 Ward Members, and 3,347 Upa Sarpanches were elected in the first round of voting on December 11. Even though 56,19,430 people were registered to vote, 45,15,141 of them actually cast ballots, resulting in an 84.28 percent turnout.

2,864 Congress-backed candidates won the Sarpanch elections, giving the incumbent Congress party a commanding lead in the first round. Candidates backed by Congress took home 67.63% of the 4,235 sarpanch seats. 1,143 seats (26.99%) were won by candidates sponsored by the BRS, 185 seats (4.37%) by candidates backed by the BJP, and 43 seats (1.02%) by independents and others.

The State Election Commission announced this month that three rounds of panchayat elections for 12,728 Sarpanch and 1,12,242 Ward Member positions would take place on December 11, 14, and 17.

Voters in rural regions are entitled to cast a total of 1.66 crore ballots in these elections.

Since the Rs 3,000 crore funding that should come from the Centre expires on March 31, 2026, the Telangana Cabinet last month opted to hold just Gram Panchayat elections in December.

Following the High Court’s final rulings on the 42% reservation for Backward Classes (BCs), elections will be conducted for Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs), Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs), and municipal corporations.

A government decree that gave BCs 42% of the seats in local bodies was overturned by the High Court in October, but the elections may still go forward with a 50% ceiling on the total number of seats reserved for all sectors.