Congress sets target of 12 seats in Telangana for Lok Sabha 2024

A month after capturing power in Telangana, the Congress has set an ambitious target of winning at least 12 of the state's 17 Lok Sabha seats.

The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) will work out a strategy to achieve the target by holding a review meeting with leaders from five districts each on 8 and 9 January. This will be followed by meetings with in-charges for all 17 Lok Sabha seats from 10 to 12 January. Congress leaders will embark on visits to all constituencies from 20 January to connect with voters at the grassroots level.

These decisions were taken at an extended meeting of the TPCC presided over by its president and the state's chief minister A. Revanth Reddy on Wednesday and attended by All India Congress Committee (AICC) Telangana in-charge Deepa Das Munshi. This was the first meeting after her appointment as in-charge in place of Manikrao Thakare.

The meeting congratulated her on being appointed AICC in-charge. It also passed a resolution acknowledging the significant contributions of Thakare in the recent electoral victory in Telangana.

The TPCC requested Congress parliamentary party leader Sonia Gandhi to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Telangana. A resolution to this effect moved by the chief minister was passed unanimously.

The discussion centred around the strategy for the Lok Sabha 2024 elections, implementation of six guarantees, and filling nominated posts. Deepa Das Munshi advised party leaders to work hard to achieve the target for the Lok Sabha elections, and stressed the need for greater coordination between the party and the government.

The meeting condemned the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government for misleading people by publishing books highlighting unfulfilled promises of the Congress before the new government had completed even a month in office. Revanth Reddy asked party leaders to expose BRS propaganda and highlight its mismanagement of state finances.

Deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, other ministers, and senior leaders participated in the meeting. The party is expected to begin the process of selecting candidates for the Lok Sabha polls soon.

In 2019, the Congress had won three out of the 17 Lok Sabha seats. All the three MPs, including Revanth Reddy, contested the recent assembly elections and won. The BRS had won nine seats in 2019, while BJP had bagged four. The AIMIM had retained one seat.