Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and Malkajgiri MP A. Revanth Reddy’s comments that Reddy leadership should may have put the party in soup, but other issues which have been simmering are now slowly coming to the fore. All is not well within the Congress in the state, if some senior leaders are to be believed.
While it is no secret that the Congress in Telangana always had different power groups working internally, Revanth, after his appointment as TPCC chief was expected to solve these matters and make the party more cohesive. However, Congress leaders, including ex-MLAs and some others, said that with about a year to go before elections, their house is barely in order.
“His comments on promoting Reddy leadership is a big setback to the party, as our leaders are finding it difficult to respond to people when they ask us about this. Revanth says it was part of his strategy, but we don’t know on whose advice he speaks that way,” remarked a senior Congress leader from Telangana who did not want to be quoted.
The Congress leader claimed that in the existing power dynamics within the party, former leaders from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) who joined the Congress are now close to Revanth and his aides. It may be noted that in Telangana, about 60% of the population belongs to the Backward Classes, which is dominated by the Yadav, Padmashali, and Goud communities.
BC leaders have often complained of being sidelined in the past, especially at the cost of power being in the hands of Reddy leaders, whose community is less than 10% in Telangana. “A comment like what Revanth made close to the elections will do a lot of damage,” remarked a political analyst who did not want to be named.
Another Congress leader also said that after Congress leader and Waynad MP Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Telangana earlier this month has not been capitalised on. “Families of farmers who were brought to Rahul Gandhi’s meetings have been left in the lurch. Revanth has also not done a single review of any district yet,” he told Siasat.com.
The state goes to polls in 2023, as Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) supremo and incumbent chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) had dissolved the government six months before its term in September 2018 (the state election otherwise would have been held with the 2019 general elections).
In the last election, the ruling TRS won a thumping majority after bagging 88 out of 119 seats. The Congress, which had formed a grand alliance with other opposition parties (like the TDP and Telangana Jana Samithi) won 19, the TDP 2, and the All India Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) 7. The Bharatiya Janata Party had won only one seat.
However, soon after, 12 Congress and both the TDP MLAs defected to the TRS, while the BJP managed to increase its tally to three seats by winning the Dubbaka and Huzurabad by-elections in 2020 and 2021.
