Hyderabad: The results of the urban local body polls in Telangana showed the people's endorsement of the welfare and development programmes carried out by the state government, said Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Rao, who is also known as KRC, congratulated party leaders and workers for the sweep, which he said was a historic one and made the ruling camp feel more responsible towards the state’s development. KRC was speaking as the TRS was on course to achieve an emphatic win in the Urban Local Body polls as counting of votes progressed on Saturday.
“We have to be more responsible now. This is the victory of the people’s acceptance of our six years of governance and decisions. We want to be work strongly for development of people.”
The chief minister said the Municipal and Panchayat acts would be implemented strictly and a new revenue act would be introduced to do away with corruption at the bureaucratic level. KCR also promised to provide better living conditions in cities and towns.
Speaking for the first time on the issue of Citizenship Amendment Act and proposed implementation of the National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens, KRC said he may soon convene a conclave of regional parties and chief ministers in Hyderabad to oppose the same.
He also said the Telangana Assembly may pass a resolution against the recently amended Citizenship Act that he said was unconstitutional.
Ahead of the municipal elections, leaders of opposition parties had asked KCR to make his stand clear on the contentious issue that has rocked the nation ever since the amendment was passed by Parliament in December.
However, the CM had evaded all questions on the topic and chosen to speak only on development and funds-related issues with the Centre. On Saturday, he again said a number of his pre-poll promises may take time to be implemented as the government is trying to deal with the effects of nationwide recession.
He, however, said funds will be allocated for old-age pension from 57 years in the next budget while indicating that there could be some increase in taxes.
Regarding the upcoming Assembly elections in Delhi, KCR said everybody is hoping that incumbent Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is voted back to power.
When asked about speculations on making his son and TRS working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) the next CM, KCR said, “I am perfect now. Wishful thinkers may think whatever they want, only time will tell who takes over from me.”
KTR, who oversaw the party’s preparation for the municipal polls, said the 'victory' became possible due to the efforts of the 60 lakh members of TRS.
"The people of Telangana have once again demonstrated that they stand by TRS, whatever is the election. They have rejected the false campaign of opposition parties in the municipal polls," the municipal administration minister said in a statement.
He also appreciated the efforts of the party’s "social media soldiers" for exposing the alleged false campaign of opposition parties and for spreading awareness about the good work of the TRS government.
Polling for 120 municipalities and nine corporations was held amid tight security on January 22. The TRS bagged all the 32 Zilla Parishads in the rural local body elections held last year and the party was hopeful of continuing its impressive performance in the municipal polls, TRS sources had said here on Friday.
The TRS has been successful at the hustings, having returned to power with a massive majority in the assembly polls held in December 2018.
It put up a decent performance in the Lok Sabha polls (winning 11 out of the total 19 seats), though it suffered an unexpected setback when KCR's daughter K Kavitha failed to retain her Nizamabad seat.
The BJP made surprise gains in the Lok Sabha polls, securing four seats. The TRS had won the Huzurnagar Assembly constituency bypoll held in October last year where by-election was necessitated after state Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy quit following his election to the Lok Sabha.
(With inputs from PTI)
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