Hyderabad: Ahead of Counting Day on Tuesday, the ruling Congress is confident of securing a majority of Lok Sabha seats in Telangana. The party leaders are making light of a few exit polls predicting majority seats for BJP in the state. They exuded confidence that their vote share will increase further in LS polls compared to the percentage in the Assembly elections held six months back.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy is confident that the Congress would win between nine and 13 of the 17 seats in the state.
During an informal chat with media persons here on Saturday, Reddy had said that the post-poll surveys conducted by the party clearly indicated that they would bag a majority of seats in Telangana. He said that the Congress will register comfortable wins in nine seats while there is a tough fight with the BJP in four seats. A tally of 13 seats will be a four-fold increase over the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when Congress won just three seats-Nalgonda, Bhongir and Malkajgiri.
He stated that there was a straight fight between Congress and BJP in all the seats except Hyderabad and BRS was nowhere in the picture. The Congress came to power in Telangana in Assembly polls by securing a vote share of 39.4 per cent while bagging 64 seats out of 119.
The BRS lost power with a vote share of 37.3 per cent and won only 39 seats.
The Congress as a ruling party now hopes to garner a major vote share of BRS that could go up to 50 per cent in Lok Sabha polls.
As per the vote share recorded in Assembly polls in December, Congress leads in nine Lok Sabha seats, including Peddapalli, Zaheerabad, Mahbubnagar, Nagarkurnool, Nalgonda, Bhongir, Warangal, Mahbubabad and Khammam.
The Congress hopes that even if it retains the same vote share, it could easily pocket those nine seats this time.
The BRS secured a majority in seven Lok Sabha constituencies, which include Adilabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Medak, Malkajgiri, Secunderabad and Chevella, while the BJP failed to secure a majority even in one Lok Sabha constituency in Telangana.
With BRS becoming weaker after it lost power, the Congress and BJP are both hoping to grab the BRS vote share in these seven constituencies and romp home.