HYDERABAD: The political battlefield in Hyderabad is shifting: Congress is on the offensive, BJP is banking on its corporator base and BRS is fighting a wave of defections. With Jubilee Hills as the prestige battleground and AIMIM’s shadow looming large, the race for relevance in the state capital is heating up.
After a dismal show in the 2023 Assembly elections — where it failed to win a single seat in the Greater Hyderabad region — the ruling Congress is pushing hard to turn the tide. Recent defections from the BRS, an all-out focus on the Jubilee Hills byelection and whispers of an understanding with the AIMIM have fuelled talk of a Congress revival in Hyderabad.
The party, which had won just three of 150 divisions in the last Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls, has been gaining ground ahead of the civic body polls slated for 2026. It bagged the Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly seat in a byelection, and several corporators have switched sides before and after the party came to power. BRS MLAs from Serilingampally, Rajendranagar and Khairatabad have also defected to the Congress.
Treating Jubilee Hills as a make-or-break fight, Congress has deployed three ministers — Hyderabad in-charge Ponnam Prabhakar, Thummala Nageswara Rao and Vivek Venkataswamy — to lead the campaign, combining frequent tours with development announcements to woo voters.
BJP eyes mayor’s post
The BJP is looking to reclaim the momentum it enjoyed in the 2020 GHMC elections, when it won 46 divisions. Although it secured only one Assembly seat in 2023, the party holds three Lok Sabha seats from the city and sees Greater Hyderabad as critical to its expansion in Telangana.
Meanwhile, the stakes are just as high for the BRS, which had won 44 divisions in the last GHMC polls and took the mayor and deputy mayor posts with AIMIM support. But the MIM’s current “friendly” stance towards Congress — coupled with BRS’s failure to win a single Lok Sabha seat earlier this year — has left the pink party on the back foot.
Defections on the horizon
Congress is pinning its hopes on development promises — Metro rail expansion, the ‘Future City’ project, Musi river rejuvenation, ration card distribution and other welfare schemes — while quietly running ‘Operation Akarsh’ to draw in more BRS MLAs and corporators from the GHMC area. Party sources say more switches could happen after Dasara or the local body elections.
The BJP is also in the poaching game, claiming that three BRS MLAs are in touch. But it is demanding they resign and recontest as a public test of support, a move aimed at portraying the party as confident and uncompromising.
For Congress, a Jubilee Hills win could be the launchpad for a GHMC majority and control of both the mayor and deputy mayor posts. Political circles are already speculating about a possible Congress–MIM post-poll understanding — reminiscent of the power-sharing deals of undivided Andhra Pradesh.