Gram panchayat poll setback: Stung Congress blames BRS-BJP ‘pact’

After BRS-backed candidates won key sarpanch and ward member posts in the first phase of gram panchayat polls, TPCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud blamed a ‘secret pact’ between BRS and BJP, defended Congress MLAs, and dismissed politicisation of Messi football match

Hyderabad: After Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS)-backed candidates won a sizeable number of sarpanch and ward member posts in the first phase of gram panchayat polls, TPCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud tried to deflect the blame, coming up with the now familiar Congress rhetoric of a ‘secret pact’ between the BRS and the BJP.

When asked about several family members and close relatives of Congress MLAs and MPs suffering defeats, the TPCC president maintained that the results could not be interpreted as a failure of the MLAs or MPs.

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Stating that several factors influence sarpanch elections, he pointed out that most sarpanches elected unanimously were Congress-backed candidates. He questioned how the BJP, which won eight MLA and eight MP seats in the State, failed to translate that vote share in the gram panchayat elections, stressing that Congress supporters emerged victorious in majority of panchayats.

Earlier, responding to the poor turnout of industrialists and prominent personalities at the Global Summit, Goud said the short notice was the primary reason for their absence. He claimed that no other summit in the country had attracted such a scale of investment commitments.

“While extending invitations, our Ministers urged prominent personalities to attend the Global Summit if there was any scope. However, it was too short of notice and many could not come,” he said.

On the controversy surrounding the proposed football match featuring star player Lionel Messi, the TPCC president said the State government had no involvement in organising the event.

“Since Messi is a star player, the government is only extending security and other facilities. What’s wrong in it? Unfortunately, the opposition is trying to politicise the match,” he alleged.