Grand vision, meagre finances: Telangana in 2026 amid 'six guarantees'

Hyderabad: Though the Congress government in Telangana, led by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, firmly entrenched itself in 2025 with impressive wins in the Jubilee Hills Assembly bypoll and rural local body elections, the fulfilment of all poll promises in 2026 is likely to become a daunting task amid mounting debts and falling revenues.

The Congress government unveiled a grand vision to make the state a USD 3 trillion economy by 2047 and USD 1 trillion by 2034 which, according to former RBI Governor D Subbarao, requires an annual growth rate of 8-9 per cent.

Telangana's borrowings stood at over Rs 58,000 crore at the end of November, as against the budgeted Rs 54,000 crore for the full year while the total receipts were at Rs 1.67 lakh crore, 59 per cent of the targeted Rs 2.85 lakh crore.

The situation presents an apparent dim financial picture, as the Congress government is yet to implement some of its poll promises under the "Six Guarantees" it made ahead of the 2023 polls.

Two of the promises with huge financial implications are, providing Rs 2500 monthly financial assistance for women and Rs 4000 monthly pension to the elderly. Both are yet to be implemented. The 'guarantees' that have been rolled out include free bus travel for women across the state and 200 units of free power for eligible beneficiaries.

Besides the 'Telangana Rising Global Summit' where it released its 2047 vision document, the government hosted big ticket events, including Miss World pageant and football legend Lionel Messi's "GOAT Tour to India" during the year, aiming to project the state at the global level.

The ruling Congress, under CM Revanth Reddy's leadership, continued its winning streak in 2025.

After the success in the 2023 assembly elections, Congress followed up with a decent electoral show in 2024, winning eight of total 17 Lok Sabha seats. In 2025, it wrested Jubilee Hills from the opposition BRS and also put up a good show in the Gram Panchayat polls.

BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), who stayed away from public engagements since his party's defeat in the 2023 assembly polls, returned to political activity towards the end of the year.

Following a string of electoral defeats suffered by his party, KCR vowed to throw a fresh challenge at the Congress in the new year and to undertake agitations for the state's water rights.

Though BRS drew a blank in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it came up with a better show in the Jubilee Hills by-election and the Gram Panchayat polls.

In dramatic turn of events within the party, KCR's daughter and MLC K Kavitha was suspended from the BRS in September, after she accused her cousins and party leaders T Harish Rao and J Santosh Kumar of "tarnishing" her father's image over the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project built during the BRS regime.

Since her suspension, she has been focusing on public issues under the banner of Telangana Jagruti, a cultural organisation she heads. Kavitha also indicated that she would contest Assembly polls in 2028.

A judicial commission headed by former Supreme Court judge PC Ghose held KCR accountable for the alleged irregularities related to the construction and other aspects of the three barrages of the Kaleshwaram project.

The state government ordered a CBI inquiry into the matter in September.

Aiming to project the state as an attractive investment and tourism destination, the state government organised the Miss World 2025 pageant in May and showcased Telangana's tourist attractions to the beauty queens and the world at large.

The 'Telangana Rising Global Summit' was organised at a sprawling location on the city's outskirts, where the government proposes to develop "Bharat Future City", envisioned as India's first net-zero city and designed to be both sustainable and economically vibrant.

During 2026, the government is likely to face the challenges of resource mobilization, land acquisition and addressing environmental issues as it aims to implement its flagship projects, including development of Future City and rejuvenation of the highly polluted Musi river here, besides expansion of Metro rail project.

Telangana was in the news when it emerged that one of its sons was allegedly involved in a fatal shooting incident in Australia's Bondi Beach.

Hyderabad native Sajid Akram, the slain suspect in the mass shooting turned out to be an Indian national hailing from here, although no terror link with the city was found.

The state witnessed a number of accidents, including industrial, during the outgoing year.

Eight workers went missing when a portion of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel project collapsed in Nagarkurnool district in February.

Though the government undertook prolonged search operations using advanced technology, only two bodies could be recovered.

A blaze in the residential cum jewellery shops complex building at Gulzar Houz near the iconic Charminar here on May 18 killed 17 people, including eight children, belonging to the extended family of a jeweller.

As many as 46 people were killed in a blast and fire accident in pharma company Sigachi's manufacturing plant in Sanga Reddy district on June 30.

In a ghastly road accident, 19 people were killed and over 30 suffered injuries when a gravel-laden tipper lorry collided head-on with a government bus in Ranga Reddy district of Telangana on November 3.

At least 45 people, most of them from Hyderabad, were killed in a bus accident in Saudi Arabia during their journey to Madina for Ziyarath in November.